Dr. Mekhail Anwar
Department of Radiation Oncology, UCSF
BSAC Postdoc 2014
November 1, 2016 | 12:00 to 01:00 | 490 Cory Hall
Host: Bernhard Boser
While the statistics surrounding cancer are simultaneously humbling and inspiring, they hide a key need in cancer care: the fundamental limiting reagent in cancer therapy is not the lack of treatment modalities, but the chasm between the spatial and temporal resolution needed to fight cancer and the capabilities of therapeutic and diagnostic tools available today. In this talk, I will discuss how sensors and actuators placed directly in the tumor microenvironment are synergistic with current treatment paradigms and significantly improve cancer care across diagnosis, treatment, and surveillance.
One example is the all-to-common problem of tumor cells left behind after cancer surgery, increasing the risk of cancer recurring across cancer types. Leveraging advances in targeted molecular imaging agents, I will discuss an integrated circuit-based, sub-millimeter thin optics-free fluorescent imaging array with the goal of “coating,” and thereby transforming, the surgical tool itself into a microscopic imager. Testing in vitro models of breast cancer shows 200 cell sensitivity, orders of magnitude below current intraoperative imagers, and visualization of ex vivo mouse breast tumor tissue demonstrates visualization of residual cancer cells. Turning attention to the challenges of delivering therapy and monitoring patients after treatment, I will briefly discuss strategies to harness the power of sensors implanted in the tumor microenvironment to deliver real-time molecular information. Taken together, there is enormous potential for microfabricated sensors, actuators, and networks placed within the tumor microenvironment to change the face, and future, of cancer treatment.
http://profiles.ucsf.edu/mekhail.anwar
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