Guardian Technologies International Inc., a leading technology developer of intelligent imaging informatics solutions for the homeland security and health care sectors, has submitted a proposal to the U.S. government for funding of a $5 million research and development grant to expand the current capabilities of Signature Mapping™ for the early detection of breast cancer.

Guardian has teamed with Howard University and the Medical Imaging Informatics Labs at the University of Southern California to pursue federal grant funding under the funded "Center of Excellence" program. The research and development proposal is entitled, “Enhanced Training for Diverse Populations Breast Cancer Diagnosis Using Signature Mapping and Expanded Mammography Database.” The team has submitted its proposal under Broad Agency Announcement funding of the Department of Defense.

Building on the initial work conducted by Howard and Georgetown Universities, the proposed project would expand the clinical database from 260 patients to 500 patients, making it the largest longitudinal clinical database for breast cancer in the world. In addition, the proposed project would include the implementation of a DICOM-based, fault-tolerant data grid for image archiving and distribution; the development of a Web-based front end complete with navigational and search tools capable of fully accessing the clinical database from anywhere in the world; and the development of interactive multimedia education modules for outreach teaching and training.