Cambridge-based Lucida Medical, which provides magnetic resonance imaging of cancer, has appointed Dr David Tuch as non-executive chair of the board to help secure further investment and enable the company to scale up to put its technology into the hands of clinicians.

Last year Lucida Medical received a CE mark for its Pi software, and a had a successful collaboration and technology demonstration with a major vendor and radiology network.

Tuch is an experienced life science entrepreneur, investor and executive. He has a PhD from MIT and Harvard Medical School after working in MRI, inventing and patenting a pioneering method for diffusion-weighted imaging now used worldwide. After working as global head of imaging at Novartis and then as head of research alliances at GE Healthcare, he founded Lightpoint Medical to develop a novel miniaturised gamma ray sensor for surgery for prostate cancer and other conditions. He grew Lightpoint Medical as chief executive where he is now executive chair.

Lucida Medical co-founder and chief executive Dr Antony Rix said: “David’s long history of leadership both in building start-ups and in cancer imaging further strengthen the team at Lucida Medical. We are greatly looking forward to working with David to scale up the development and commercialisation of our Pi technology, growing the company.”

Lucida Medical co-founder and chief medical officer Professor Evis Sala, professor of oncological imaging at the University of Cambridge, added: “David joins at an excellent time. Following our successful collaboration with EMRAD and GE, and CE marking, we are now ready to build Lucida Medical further to help hospitals and radiology and urology partners to bring Pi into clinical use. After the challenges of the last two years, hospitals have a serious backlog in cancer screening and need to use technology like Pi to speed the process and offer patients better care.”

Tuch said: “Lucida’s groundbreaking Pi cancer imaging and machine learning technology has the potential to address the pressing, global medical need for earlier prostate cancer detection. I am looking forward to working with the executive team and investors to deliver on the promise of Lucida’s remarkable technology.”

Lucida Medical is backed by XTX Ventures. Alexandre Perrin, head of ventures at XTX Ventures, said: “We are delighted that David Tuch has joined Lucida Medical. His impressive track record complements the existing team well and sets the company up to continue its growth over the coming years.”