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A PHYSICIST ' S CANCER TREATMENT
CAPABLE OF MORE
HADIVAH-NICOLE GREEN
ALABAMA SllENTIST , ONE OF NATION ' S FEW Bl.ACK FEMALE PHYSICISTS , BREAKS GROUND IN CANCER RESEAR�
By Anna Claire Vallers - Guest Columnist
Dr . Hadiyah Nicole Green Alabama Scientist Physicists Cancer Research Treatment Anna Claire Vollers Alabama A & M University Black History 2016
When Dr . Hadiyah-Nicole Green receives invitations to be a guest speaker for professional groups , schools and nonprofit organizations , she almost never turns them down . " Usually if there is an invitation to speak at a forum like that , I accept it because I feel like it ' s a responsibility ," she said . " There are so few of us ( black women in STEM fields ) I don ' t feel like I have the luxury to say I ' m too busy ."
By many measures , Hadiyah-Nicole has been extremely busy . One of fewer than 100 black female physicists in the country , she recently won a $ 1.1 million grant to further develop her patent-pending technology for using laser-activated nanoparticles to treat cancer .
A tomboy as a child , Hadiyah-Nicole was crowned Homecoming Queen at Alabama A & M University ( by a landslide vote ), earned her master ' s and Ph . D degrees at the University of Alabama at Birmingham , and is now is an assistant professor in the physics department at Tuskegee University .
It ' s tempting to see Hadiyah-Nicole for all the ways that she is unusual - not the least for winning a large grant at a relatively young age , and for being black and female in a field dominated by white men - but it ' s not something she said she thinks about in her day-to-day life . " It looks like I ' m special , but I ' m not . I ' m no different from anybody else ," she said . " When opportunity found me , I was prepared ."
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Hadiyah-Nicole personal history with cancer fuels her drive to find a way to treat it . She grew up in St . Louis and - after the death of her mother and father - was raised by her aunt and uncle , General Lee Smith and his wife , Ora Lee . When Ora Lee was diagnosed with cancer , " She refused the treatment because she didn ' t want to experience the side effects ," said Green . " It was heartbreaking , but I could appreciate she wanted to die on her own terms ." Three months later , my uncle was diagnosed with cancer ." Hadiyah-Nicole took time off from school to help him through chemotherapy and radiation treatments . " I saw firsthand how devastating it was , and I could understand why my aunt didn ' t want to go through that ."
She earned a bachelor ' s degree in physics with a concentration in fiber optics , and then a full scholarship to UAB . She got the idea to use lasers to treat cancer without the side effects of chemo and radiation .
Dr. Hadiyah-Nicole Green , an assistant professor at Tuskegee University , is one of less than 100 black female physicists in the country . She recently won a $ 1.1 million grant to develop a cancer treatment involving lasers and nanoparticl es .
A PHYSICIST ' S CANCER TREATMENT
A few months ago , Green was awarded a $ 1.1 million grant to work on a technology that targets , images and treats cancer . " I was completely overwhelmed with joy , with thanksgiving , humbled at the opportunity that a group of my peers thought that my work was worthy for such a grant ," she said . ' This is a huge door opening . It outlines a path to take this treatment to clinical trial ."
Hadiyah-Nicole had spent seven years during her master ' s and doctoral programs at UAB , developing a way to target cancer cells - not the healthy cells around them . " I ' m really hopingthis can change the way we treat cancer in America ," said Green . " There are so many people who only get a three-month or six-month survival benefit from the drugs they take . Then three or six months later , they ' re sent home with no hope , nothing else we can do . Those are the patients I want to try to save , the ones where regular medicine isn ' t effective for them ." The way the technology works is that an FDA-approved drug containing nanoparticles is injected into a cancer patient and causes the patient ' s tumor to fluoresce ( glow ) under imaging equipment . The goal is for a laser to activate the nanoparticles by heating them . " They are not toxic , so without the laser they won ' t kill anything , and the laser by itself is harmless , so without the particles it won ' t hurt anything ," said Hadiyah Nicole . " Because of their need to work together and their inability to work apart , I can insure that the treatment is only happening to the cancer cells we target and identify ."
While Hadiyah-Nicole is not the first to think of using lasers and nanoparticles to treat cancer , she ' s been able to work the bugs out of parts of the technology that have been problematic , like nanoparticle delivery and seeing success in living animals - mice , in Hadiyah-Nicole ' s case . " As a physicist I ' ve created a physical treatment that is not specific to the biology of the cancer ," she said . " It ' s a platform technology . It ' s not cancer type-specific , though it can treat the cancer specifically . That ' s a concept my friends who are biologists struggle with ."
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As she moves forward with her research and with teaching at Tuskegee , Hadiyah-Nicole makes time to speak at schools , Boys & Girls Clubs and other youth events . " People told me to make good grades and stay in school ," she said , " and I always take good advice to heart ." Green said she feels a responsibility to be a positive example and change stereotypes of black women portrayed in media ."
There are black female scientists who don ' t get media exposure ," she said . " Because of that , young black girls don ' t see those role models as often as they see Beyonce or Nicki Minaj . It ' s important to know that our brains are capable of more than fashion and entertainment and music , even though arts are important ."
Hadiyah-Nicole has mentored several young women , many of whom have gone on to receive degrees and jobs in science-related fields . " It takes a village to raise a child ," she said . " I repeat that because a village of people helped raise me and instill values in me , and encouraged me to get to this point . I did not get here by myself . Because of that clarity , I know my responsibility to encourage and mentor the next generation ."