Newsight Imaging to Begin Rapid COVID-19 Detection Tests Using Spectral Technology at Sheba Medical Center

Newsight Imaging, an Israeli startup from Ness Ziona announced today that it has received Sheba Medical Center’s IRB Ethics (“Helsinki”) Committee approval to conduct a pilot program for rapid COVID-19 detection tests. The tests will be conducted using Newsight’s revolutionary spectral device based on its developed Spectrometer-on-Chip. The device, which is about the size of a computer mouse, can identify and classify evidence of a virus in the body in less than a second, using a sample of fluid (blood serum or saliva sample) inserted into a disposable test cuvette.
The spectral technology for virus detection is not a new scientific discovery. However, Newsight’s innovation manifests in the ability to bring an expensive device (hundreds of thousands of dollars), to be implemented in a single cost-effective chip, using an AI algorithm to separate the profile of a human infected with a specific virus, from a human infected with a different virus or from a healthy human. Newsight’s device simultaneously checks 1024 spectral channels, currently in the visible light spectrum of 400-700 nm. During the next few months, the company plans to present a device that will be capable of examining a spectral profile in wavelengths of up to 1100 nm.
Medical experts in the infectious and tropical disease departments at Sheba Medical Center are already working with Newsight. Initial feasibility studies of the device have shown an ability to separate between alpha-coronaviruses (Alpha-CoV) and beta-coronaviruses (Beta-CoV), with an accuracy close to 100%, in addition to feasibility studies conducted on blood serum samples of people infected with the Dengue virus, which were found to be extremely accurate. Newsight and Sheba’s ARC Innovation Center intend to establish a joint company that will make the solutions commercially available to the medical community around the globe. “Newsight is yet another outstanding example of how ARC@Sheba Medical Center and the Israeli start-up ecosystem are working in tandem to reinvent existing technology to battle the scourge of COVID-19,” said Dr. Eyal Zimlichman, Chief Medical and Innovation Center at Sheba Medical Center.
Newsight Imaging’s previous machine vision chips are already integrated in dozens of different devices and solutions in the Automotive, Robotics, and Advanced industrial manufacturing fields. In the spectral field, several months ago Newsight signed with Mekorot, Israel’s National Water Company, to jointly develop real time water quality monitoring solutions, and is currently about to successfully complete the first milestone of the joint pilot. Moreover, the company has already sold a license to develop virus and bacteria detection devices based on its technology, to the artificial intelligence company AIinnoBio from Hong Kong, which was founded by the super-investor Dr. George So.
Sheba Medical Center at Tel HaShomer is the largest and most comprehensive medical center in the Middle East. Sheba is also the only medical center in Israel that combines an acute care hospital and a rehabilitation hospital on one campus, and is at the forefront of medical treatments, patient care, research, innovation and education. In 2019 & 2020 Newsweek magazine named Sheba one of the top ten hospitals in the world. To learn more, visit: eng.sheba.co.il.
Newsight Imaging Ltd (www.nstimg.com) develops advanced CMOS Image sensor chips for 3D machine vision and spectral analysis. Newsight’s depth camera sensors for machine vision serve verticals such as Mobile, Robotics, Industry 4.0, Automotive Safety and Surveillance. Its unique eTOF™️ technology enhances the short distance iTOF and provides accurate depth sensing for longer distances even outdoors. In addition, Newsight developed a spectrometer-on-chip backed by AI, demonstrated in the development kit- SpectraLIT™️. The SpectraLIT™️ offers a unique and affordable solution for remote health, real time diagnosis and quality inspection solutions for Water, Food& Beverage etc. The company has 14 US and EU patents, was named “Cool Vendor” in the Nobel sensors category by Gartner and received 3 grants by the Israeli Innovation Authority.