Illinois Institute of Technology announced a cancer imaging research team is the winner of the final round of the university’s Nayar Prize, which includes a $500,000 personal award to team members. Including previous rounds, this brings the total amount won by this and other teams in the first Nayar Prize competition to $1 million.
The team of Kenneth Tichauer, Illinois Tech associate professor of biomedical engineering; and Jovan Brankov, Illinois Tech associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and of biomedical engineering, and director of the Advanced X-ray Imaging Laboratory developed the Agent-Dependent Early Photon Tomography Cancer Imager with the goal of finding tumors in lymph nodes of breast cancer patients at earlier stages.
The ADEPT System Cancer Imager dyes the entire lymph node, as opposed to a small sample. The combination of the special dyeing process and camera improvements provides a sharper picture of the tissue sample at the molecular level.
The result is a system that allows pathologists to find smaller tumors and prescribe a precise and personalized drug treatment for the patient. Team members estimate 40,000 more women will be properly diagnosed annually using the ADEPT imager.
The team is planning a clinical trial of the ADEPT system, in a partnership with Sanford Research in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and the University of Chicago Department of Pathology.
The ADEPT Cancer Imager team was selected as one of three finalists for the inaugural Nayar Prize when the competition was announced in 2015, earning $100,000 to continue its research. It was selected from that pool as the sole phase II finalist, earning an additional $200,000 for further research. The team members can use the final, personal $500,000 award at their discretion with no restrictions.
Team members include Miles Wernick, Motorola Endowed Chair Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, director of the Medical Imaging Research Center and professor of biomedical engineering; Lori Andrews, distinguished professor of law and director of the Institute for Science, Law, and Technology at Chicago-Kent College of Law; and Yongyi Yang, Harris Perlstein Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and professor of biomedical engineering.
