Over 30 Years of Innovation

Since 1984, ISS has been committed to the development and design of highly sensitive scientific instrumentation for research, clinical and industrial applications. Over the years, our innovations introduced to research-grade fluorescence instrumentation generated a second product line for medical applications. In 1992, ISS started a project with the research group at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign headed by Prof. Enrico Gratton and aimed at understanding the behavior of fluorophores in scattering and turbid media; the goal was the development of an instrument suitable for the non-invasive measurements of metabolites in the human body. As a result of this collaboration, ISS introduced a non-invasive Tissue Oximeter for the measurement of the absolute oxygen concentration in tissues, called OxiplexTS. The first prototype of the instrument was completed in 1998; about one hundred units of OxiplexTS have been installed worldwide so far. A second instrument, Imagent, utilized for the mapping of activated brain areas, was added in 2001. Both products have been developed with the generous contribution of The National Institutes of Health through the SBIR program and today they are successfully marketed worldwide by our division ISS Medical, fully dedicated to the development of instrumentation for medical applications.

ISS instruments are installed in universities and corporations worldwide. Our customers include several major universities, corporations, hospitals and research institutions across the globe, including, in the United States, The Mayo Foundation, the VA Administration, The National Institute of Standards and Technology, The National Institutes of Health, Oak Ridge National Laboratories and The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Our Products

Research-Grade Fluorescence Instrumentation
ISS is dedicated to provide innovative fluorescence instrumentation to scientists working in the life sciences, drug discovery, material sciences and basic physical-chemical research applications. Our fluorescence product line includes steady-state spectrofluorometers, spectrometers for the determination of multiple decay times, fluorescence microscopes, laser scanning confocal microscopes, a spectrometer for fluorescence correlation spectroscopy and a particle-tracking system for single molecule detection.

ISS has a long history of innovation and holds the relevant patents pertinent to frequency-domain instrumentation: ISS is the leader in frequency-domain time-resolved fluorescence instrumentation. ISS instruments share a series of interchangeable accessories covering a variety of applications; modular components allow the user to upgrade the instrumentation with novel capabilities as well as to assemble a custom-designed instrument. Instruments are designed with an open architecture from the excitation side to the collection channels; the excitation light sources of ISS instruments are xenon arc lamps, continuous wave lasers, laser diodes, light emitting diodes, multiphoton lasers and synchrotron radiation rings.

Biomedical Instrumentation
OxiplexTS™ is a tissue oximeter for the non-invasive measurement of oxy- and deoxy-hemoglobin concentration in tissues, total blood volume and oxygen saturation. Its current investigation areas cover peripheral vascular disease (PVD), sleep-apnea disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), neonatology, neurosurgery (both in operating rooms and intensive care units) and sport medicine. The frequency-domain instrument utilizes near infrared light in the wavelength range 690-850 nm, which is delivered to the tissue by fiber optics sensors.

Imagent™ is an instrument for the detection of activated area of the brain under a stimulus. Light is delivered through fiber optics held in place by a headgear; fiber optics bundles collect the optical signal that traversed through the scalp and the brain areas. Up to 64 sources and 16 detectors can be arranged in various geometric patterns to capture, upon activation, both fast signals (a few millisecond long) and slow hemodynamics changes (about 100 milliseconds and longer). While the functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) technique is sensitive only to changes in relative deoxy-hemoglobin concentration (BOLD signal), ImagentT can detect changes in both oxy- and deoxy-hemoglobin concentrations. Tests to prove the co-registration of signals acquired by ImagentT with signals acquired using fMRI have been successfully completed and published.

United States ISS, Inc.
1602 Newton Drive
Champaign, IL 61822
www.iss.com Phone: 1-217-359-8681
Fax: 1-217-359-7879
Email: service@iss.com
Europe Innovendia
Bartholomöus-Moser-Weg 4
D-88696 Owingen
Germany Contact: Dr. Michael Steinwand
Tel: 07551-838411
Fax: 07551-838412
Email: msteinwand@innovendia.de