There is no simple diagnostic screen for most gynecological cancers, with the exception of a Pap test for cervical cancer. By the time women experience symptoms of uterine or endometrial cancers, often they have spread too far to be easily treated.
But now a biomedical engineer at the University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering is working to develop a device that could enable much earlier detection of gynecological cancers in a minimally invasive fashion. Rohith Reddy was recruited in 2017 with the help of a First-Time Tenure-Track Award from CPRIT from Harvard Medical School, where he was a postdoctoral fellow.
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There is no simple diagnostic screen for most gynecological cancers, with the exception of a Pap test for cervical cancer. By the time women experience symptoms of uterine or endometrial cancers, often they have spread too far to be easily treated.
But now a biomedical engineer at the University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering is working to develop a device that could enable much earlier detection of gynecological cancers in a minimally invasive fashion. Rohith Reddy was recruited in 2017 with the help of a First-Time Tenure-Track Award from CPRIT from Harvard Medical School, where he was a postdoctoral fellow.
Reddy proposes to develop an all-in-one device that would perform high-resolution imaging of the cervix and uterus, as well as automated sampling and single-cell sequencing of abnormal tissue. He envisions a device that could be easily deployed in a routine clinical setting, without the need to sedate patients.
“My goal is to make it something as easy and routine as a pap smear,” he says. Although initially it would only be used to examine women for whom doctors already suspect gynecological cancer, “in the long term, the goal is to make it a routine test.”
Instruments like colposcopes and hysteroscopes currently used for identifying cervical and endometrial cancers only magnify the surface of the cervix or uterus. Reddy’s optical imaging will have better resolution, wider field of view, and be able to identify tumors deep inside the tissue. The single-cell sequencing would allow physicians to immediately determine the genetic signature of the cancer’s mutations in order to personalize treatment.
Reddy has already had a significant role in developing a clinical tool to detect precancerous lesions inside a patient’s esophagus. At Harvard Medical School, he helped develop an imaging device the size of a pill capsule, attached to a thin optical fiber, that patients swallow. The capsule scans the entire esophagus within minutes. The procedure can be used in a doctor’s office or clinic, doesn’t require any sedation, and provides results immediately.
“My goal is to use the same concepts and principles,” for the gynecological tool, he says, “so that it’s easy to use, you don’t need a doctor to use it, and it can be done in a primary care setting so that you don’t have to go to a hospital.”
Reddy says that CPRIT support is essential because developing clinical imaging devices for translational research is an expensive endeavor. He finds the Houston area very conducive to collaborative research; the gynecological work is being done with colleagues at MD Anderson. “Because the Texas Medical Center is one of the largest medical facilities in the world, that was a big draw for me to come to Houston,” he says. “As an engineer I need clinicians with whom I can collaborate and important problems to work on, as well as access to facilities.”
Reddy studied electrical engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras, where he received his master’s degree. He was awarded a Ph.D. in bioengineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2013, and became a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard later that year. He has five patents pending for his work at Illinois and Harvard.
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