Ph o t o i n itiation
One of the ways of decreasing the harsh side effects of
chemotherapy is to deliver the therapy only to cancerous
cells, thus maintaining the integrity of surrounding healthy
tissue. Currently, one method that is fairly effective at more
precisely targeting cancerous cells utilizes light-activated
therapy. The patient (for example, one with esophageal
cancer) takes the drug in pill form. It remains inert until
a fiber optic bundle of light shines into the esophagus,
which then activates the drug only at the location of the
cancerous cells.
This is a promising therapeutic technique, but it has a few
inherent problems. The main one is that because the light
energy is transferred to oxygen, it is actually the oxygen
that kills the cancerous cells. This treatment method is
not highly effective in aggressive tumors because they are
already depleted of oxygen due to their rapid replication.
Foundation funding to the tune of $300,000 for three
years and is capturing the attention of research partners
at other institutions across the country.
BEFORE
Vero cells. Area of light exposure in red.
Research assistant Matthew Mongelli tests one of the luminescent samples. Photo by Michael Kiernan.
“I am m o s t s u r p r i s e d by
what yo u c a n a c c o m p l i s h
when yo u u s e t h i s t y p e o f
t e a m a p p ro a c h”
AFTER TREATMENT
C o l l a b o r a t i ve Be n e f i t s
Brewer and Winkel agree that the collaborative effort on
this research has been remarkable.
“This is what really sets our research apart from what you see
going on at medical schools,” Winkel said. “Rather than the
trial and error of what works and what doesn’t, we are much
more methodical so we can understand the mechanism and
why things work or don’t work.”
“We decided to come up with some molecular system