Might help in early cancer detection.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: Sangeeta Bhatia, the Director of the Laboratory for Multiscale Regenerative Technologies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), is the scientist behind a revolutionary new technology that can detect cancer in a patient by using a simple and very inexpensive paper testing method.
The announcement came on Monday that the incredibly simple test was ready for its close-up. The test works much the same way that a simple pH test for water or a urine test for controlled substances does; a paper is dipped into a sample of urine, and based on how the paper reacts to the sample, doctors can tell whether or not the patient is at risk or in the early stages of cancer. Being able to detect cancer at the earliest stages often means the disease can be fought off successfully at incredibly high rates.
Bhatia, 46, developed the test at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at MIT. The technology used in the test basically detects certain proteins within the patient’s urine called proteases, a “biomarker” that is often used to tell whether or not a person is at risk for developing cancer. Bhatia hopes that the ease and affordability of these tests will allow more patients to get treated earlier.
The technology is still being fine-tuned, and Bhatia is moving ahead full-steam to get the technology to as many people as possible. Through a grant from MIT’s Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation, Bhatia and her research team are developing a business plan to create a start-up that can commercialize the test’s technology and sell it, as well as perform clinical trials to get it out to doctors as soon as possible.
Bhatia’s academic resume is formidable: she earned her B.S. in biomedical engineering from Brown University, her M.S. in mechanical engineering from MIT, her Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from MIT’s joint Harvard-MIT Division of Health Science and Technology, and her M.D. from the Harvard Medical School. She is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and the John J. and Dorothy Wilson Professor of Health Sciences and Technology (HST), Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) and Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (IMES) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
To contact the author, email to deepakchitnis@americanbazaaronline.com