RAYDIAX's EIC Accelerator CT Scanner Built for Cancer Ablation

When a radiologist destroys a liver tumour with heat, the needle goes in through the skin and the patient often lies inside a CT scanner that was built to take diagnostic pictures, not to have a doctor working at its opening. RAYDIAX, a 2022 spin-off of Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg, has built a scanner for that job alone. It calls the machine TACT, a therapy assistance computed tomograph, and describes it as the first of its kind.

The EIC Accelerator selected the project, RAYDIAX TACT, at its October 2025 cut-off for blended finance. CORDIS records an EU contribution of €2,493,012 for a project running from 1 June 2026 to 31 May 2028, with the grant agreement signed on 28 May 2026. The plan is to build two pre-commercial systems, validate them in hospitals and seek CE marking in Europe and FDA clearance in the United States in parallel. Five months into the grant period, no first patient treatment has been reported.

A scanner shaped around the needle

Interventional oncology treats tumours through millimetre-thin instruments pushed through the skin, for example to heat and destroy the tissue. The project summary calls it the fourth pillar of cancer care and argues that, unlike heart attack and stroke, where dedicated imaging is standard, the field still lacks a machine of its own: doctors work under spatial constraints, high radiation exposure and imaging that fits poorly with their tools. "Procedures are already being performed in CT scanners. But our CT scanner was developed specifically for this purpose," Sebastian Gugel, the company's head of medical affairs, told the university magazine in July 2026.

The design combines fast 3D multislice CT with large-area 2D angiography in one system, so that a bleeding complication can be handled without moving the patient, according to the company. The gantry has a free inner diameter of one metre, the table floats freely and can be positioned off centre, and an interface and programming access are offered for surgical robots. The university magazine reports that the gantry turns once per second and streams 1,000 images per rotation live to the surgeon's screen. RAYDIAX also says the imaging chain is designed to lower the radiation dose for patients and staff; no dose figure has been published, and the magazine notes that the dose is still being tested and documented.

The market case in CORDIS is the company's own: image-guided surgery systems worth €6.5 billion in 2025, growing to €9.2 billion by 2032, plus €18.2 billion of potential in robotic surgery, and access to minimally invasive treatment for more than one million patients a year. None of these figures is sourced on the project page.

From campus prototype to first patient

The groundwork is long. The company's team page dates the research to 2012, and the STIMULATE campus says the spin-off was founded on results of the KIDs-CT project funded by the German research ministry, with the stated aim of becoming a certified medical device manufacturer. According to the university magazine, the first TACT was set up on the Otto von Guericke University campus in 2024, and doctors and radiologists from the United States, Europe and the STIMULATE network have since tested it on phantoms that simulate lung and liver cancer. CORDIS adds animal and body donor tests and puts the system at technology readiness level 6.

The next step is in a hospital. The same July 2026 article says Magdeburg University Hospital will install the first TACT for the planned clinical trial and that Maciej Pech, its head of radiology, will treat the first patient. Gugel described the company as "in the critical phase on the path to admission as a medical device". No approval date or launch year has been given. The company's news page, checked on 4 November 2026, has no item after March 2026, and a web search for a first-in-human treatment with TACT found no report.

1. Working prototypeBuiltFirst ablation prototype tested on phantoms, animals and body donors, per CORDIS; set up on campus in 2024, per the university magazine.
2. Two pre-commercial systemsNot yet shownNo public report of a second system or of the hospital installation, as of November 2026.
3. Clinical validation on sitePlannedFirst patient announced for Magdeburg University Hospital; no treatment reported.
4. CE and FDA approvalPendingNo approval announced; the project runs to May 2028.
5. Lower radiation doseClaimNo dose measurement published by the company.

€7.5 million for the clinical phase

RAYDIAX raised €3.5 million in October 2023: €2.4 million of seed equity led by High-Tech Gründerfonds and bmp Ventures with the IBG funds of Saxony-Anhalt, and a €1.1 million top-up grant from the federal economy ministry, according to Silicon Canals; the company's news page gives the same €3.5 million total. Before that, a three-year EXIST research transfer grant had supported the founding team.

In March 2026 the company announced a €7.5 million Series A1. High-Tech Gründerfonds and AuntMinnie Europe describe it as €5 million of venture money, from existing investors including bmp Ventures and new investor the GETEC Family Office of Karl Gerhold, plus €2.5 million from the EIC Accelerator. The money is earmarked for first-in-human studies, a production-ready system and the build-up of sales, production and quality management. The STIMULATE campus wrote that the award comes with the prospect of further European investment in a later growth round; no EIC Fund equity investment has been announced, and CORDIS records only the grant.

Why the EU funds it

Europe's Beating Cancer Plan, the Commission's cancer strategy, counts 2.7 million cancer diagnoses and 1.3 million deaths in the EU in 2024 and makes equal access to diagnosis and treatment one of its aims. The university magazine cites the COLLISION trial, which supports thermal ablation as a standard treatment for colorectal cancer that has spread to the liver, with recovery chances similar to open surgery and shorter hospital stays. The state of Saxony-Anhalt has backed the company through the IBG funds. RAYDIAX was one of 16 winners, one per federal state, at the Startup Germany Summit in September 2024, and won the start-up category of the state's business award in November 2024, per Volksstimme and the company's news page.

RAYDIAX was not asked for comment. The reporting is based on publicly available sources, listed below.