Rochester Business Journal—For deep-tech hardware startups, commercialization often requires an agile willingness to follow a technology wherever the market demands. Modendo Inc. was originally founded and incubated in Boulder, Colorado, to develop hair-thin fiber-optic microscopes designed to look deep inside delicate brain tissue for neuroscience research. However, when semiconductor manufacturers approached the team with the need to inspect microscopic, tightly confined spaces inside advanced electronics, the startup discovered a massive, unserved market.

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The University of Colorado Connection

Modendo is developing ultra-thin fiber endoscopes—narrower than a human hair—that enable cellular-resolution imaging (<1 µm) in regions of the body previously inaccessible with conventional tools. These advanced, digitally programmable probes, approximately 100 microns in diameter, contain no moving parts and cause minimal tissue disruption, offering a transformative approach to in-vivo imaging. By reaching deep tissue targets with unprecedented precision and minimal invasiveness, Modendo’s technology addresses critical needs in neuroscience, biomedical research, disease diagnosis and medical treatment.

The company’s foundational technology was pioneered through research led by Rafael Piestun, CU Boulder professor of electrical, computer and energy engineering at CU Boulder and is based on early innovations in multimode fiber micro-endoscopy and wavefront shaping. This platform enables real-time, high-resolution image transmission through optical fibers with a cross-sectional area nearly ten times smaller than the thinnest existing endoscopes. Modendo maintains strong ties with the university, including operating an in-vivo imaging lab on campus, and holds issued patents that support its vision of providing safer, more effective imaging alternatives that accelerate recovery and expand the frontiers of medical and scientific exploration.

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