In 2010, a $1 million Queensland Government Research Industry Partnership Program (RIPP) grant encouraged UQ MRI start-up, Magnetica Limited, to seek grant-matching investment. The new capital raising venture marks another milestone in the successful translation of intellectual property originating from UQ’s Centre for Magnetic Resonance (CMR, now the Centre for Advanced Imaging) and the Biomedical Engineering Group within the School of IT and Electrical Engineering.

The UQ MRI story has involved a full gambit of commercialisation options, including licences, start-ups, exits, buy-outs and industry partnerships. Almost two thirds of the world’s high-field MRI machines currently incorporate UQ intellectual property, and  royalties and recognition from these product licences are now funding further research and innovation.

Initially, UniQuest facilitated licences with Siemens and GE Healthcare. Two start-up companies followed: SpinSystems in 1995 and Magnetica in 2004. In 2006, USⁱ firm Supertron Technologies acquired SpinSystems and named the merged entity m2m Imaging Corporation. Its headquarters are in the US, with manufacturing and R&D facilities in both Brisbane and Ohio.

Magnetica has raised over $10 million from investors and $2 million in government grants to date. Its designs are now manufactured by Japan Superconductor Technology, Inc. (Jastec), a subsidiary of multinational Kobe Steel, and include a prototype large, very high-field, whole-body magnet and a smaller 1.5T extremity magnet, which is being sold by GE globally.

A Queensland Government National and International Research Alliances Program (NIRAP) grant supported a collaboration with Jastec to develop the extremity magnet. The magnet is now used in systems across the world, with the super efficiency, advanced imaging capability and patient comfort features expected to increase demand significantly.