Pictura Bio: how PIPS helped create a world first in diagnostics

In 2022, Nicolas Shiaelis utilised his PIPS placement to work at Pictura Bio, a University of Oxford spin-out he co-founded in 2021 while a student in the Physics Department and the Kavli Institute for Nanoscience Discovery, under the supervision of Professor Achillefs Kapanidis and Professor Nicole Robb.

Shiaelis and Robb co-founded Pictura Bio to commercialise ground-breaking technology for the rapid diagnosis of infectious diseases. Today, Pictura Bio represents a comprehensive technology ecosystem designed to achieve this goal. During his placement, Shiaelis contributed to key aspects of the company’s growth, including:

• raising funds to support technology development
• advancing product development
• training staff in using the technology

Through his efforts, Shiaelis helped secure over £6.5 million in funding for Pictura Bio, enabling the production of a prototype diagnostic device.

The technology’s diagnostic capabilities were validated in collaboration with the John Radcliffe Hospital, where it demonstrated high accuracies in differentiating COVID-19-positive samples from negatives and in distinguishing between the original and Delta COVID variants. This was achieved within just five minutes. Currently, Pictura Bio is running the RESVIR study at Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth to train the machine learning component of its technology.