Indian Startup Develops Helium-Free MRI
Bangalore-based VoxelGrids has developed India's first indigenous 1.5T MRI scanner that operates without helium, a critical and expensive component. The innovation reportedly makes the scanner 40% cheaper and enables a pay-per-use model, aiming to make advanced medical imaging accessible in underserved areas.
VoxelGrids was founded in 2017 by Dr. Arjun Arunachalam, who previously worked as an MRI scientist at GE Global Research and as an assistant professor at IIT Bombay. The company has raised a total of $6.67 million over three funding rounds, with notable investors including Zoho Corporation and Social Alpha. The development of their indigenous 1.5T MRI scanner was a culmination of nearly 12 years of research and development. The scanner's key innovation is its "dry magnet" technology, which eliminates the need for liquid helium, a finite and increasingly scarce resource essential for cooling conventional MRI magnets. This not only insulates it from global helium shortages but also significantly reduces operational complexity and cost. Refilling liquid helium after a leak in a traditional MRI can cost $30,000 or more. The first clinical installation of the VoxelGrids scanner is at the Chandrapur Cancer Care Foundation near Nagpur. This represents a significant step towards self-reliance in a field dominated by multinational corporations like Siemens, GE Healthcare, and Philips. The scanner is designed to be more resilient to power fluctuations, a crucial feature for deployment in regions with unstable power infrastructure. VoxelGrids has established a manufacturing facility in Bengaluru with the capacity to produce 20-25 scanners annually. To improve accessibility for smaller hospitals, the company is offering flexible pay-per-use models, removing the barrier of high upfront capital investment which can range from ₹5 crore upwards for imported machines. This approach could make MRI scans, which currently cost between ₹2,500 and ₹8,000 or more in India, more affordable for patients. The company's in-house software development allows for faster scan times, potentially reducing the time patients need to spend inside the machine. Beyond the stationary scanner, VoxelGrids is also developing a containerized, mobile MRI unit to bring advanced diagnostic imaging to remote and underserved areas of the country. This aligns with the broader goal of addressing the significant shortfall of MRI access in India, which has only about 3.5 scanners per million people.
