Canon USA Inc. said Tuesday it inked research deals with two prestigious Boston academic medical centers to develop new brain imaging tools and medical robotics for neurosurgeries. Terms of the deals weren't disclosed.

The company, a subsidiary of the Tokyo-based maker of cameras and X-ray equipment, said the goal would be to commercialize medical devices invented or developed by researchers at the hospitals, Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital.

The agreement involves researchers from different institutes at both medical facilities, including from MGH's photomedicine, biomedical imaging and pathology imaging and communication centers, and BWH's imaging-guided therapy and image-based phenotyping centers.

The company said the devices under investigation are all in the "early stage of research."

"Scientists and doctors in the hospitals are already working on these projects," the company told DOTmed News by e-mail.

Technologies under development include optical imaging, of which brain functional imaging is a possible application, and miniature endoscopy, using a minimally invasive device to diagnose "body parts that have not been easy to access."

Canon is also looking at using robots in neurosurgery."Robotics-assisted brain surgery is an early-stage project," the company said in its e-mail. "It combines the image-guided robotics technology of Brigham and Women's Hospital with Canon's core technology of precision mechanics."

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