In his efforts to advance the development of a low-cost, compact medical device for screening and treating oral cancers, Professor of Physics Jonathan Celli has been awarded $608,000 from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The award is part of a five-year $2.87 million multi-PI NCI cooperative agreement in collaboration with Tayyaba Hasan, professor of dermatology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and Rongguang Liang, professor of optical sciences at the University of Arizona.
“This project aims to create an affordable, user-friendly handheld device for photodynamic therapy (PDT). The device’s purpose is to screen for early signs of oral cancer, identify lesion locations, and provide immediate treatment at the point of care,” explained Celli.
Both a diagnostic and treatment tool for cancerous oral lesions, the device eradicates malignant cells through PDT, which involves using a light source in combination with light-activated medication. It is a method that has already shown great promise in treating oral cancers.
