MARS Bioimaging, a New Zealand–headquartered medical device company, has sold a mobile photon-counting CT scanner to Bracco Imaging S.p.A., a global leader in diagnostic imaging, to support its contrast agent and artificial intelligence research.
The MARS Bioimaging Scanner System will be installed at Bracco’s Research Center (CRB) in Colleretto Giacosa, Italy, a facility focused on the development and innovation of contrast agents for X-ray/CT and MR imaging. The MARS Bioimaging Extremity Scanner System received US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 510(k) clearance in March 2026, providing important validation to support regulatory pathways and market adoption globally.
The MARS scanner leverages advanced photon-counting detector technology developed originally through particle physics research at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN), home of the Higgs boson discovery. MARS Bioimaging holds the exclusive licence from CERN (officially the European Organisation for Nuclear Research) to commercialise this Medipix3 technology for medical imaging of extremities at the point-of-care and for mobile scanners for clinical research.
