August 28, 2024

A digital twin (DT) is a virtual counterpart of a real patient with predictive and testing capability through realistic simulation, modeling, and visualization. A digital model of the real patient recapitulates the physical body of the patient and predicts the future outcome including tissue deformation via modeling the organs and physiology. Digital twin is a new concept in medicine, which allows virtual interactions with the body before real interventions and can thus improve surgical precision. The research grant from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) will allow the investigators to develop a digital twin augmented reality (DTAR) platform for the operating room (OR) of the future. A digital twin will be synchronized dynamically with the real patient via feedback mechanisms and will guide the surgeon to the next steps. The DTAR technology can provide a powerful tool for many surgical applications.

July 1, 2024

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) is the 3rd most deadly cancers with a 5-year survival rate of only 3% in patients with metastases. Current efforts to improve outcomes in PDA have yet to significantly extend patient survival. Chemo-immunotherapy is largely limited in PDA by desmoplasia which contributes to 1) poor drug delivery, and 2) an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment that neutralizes the action of immunotherapies. This project capitalizes on a non-toxic light- activated modality known as photodynamic priming (PDP), which we have shown to directly remediate desmoplasia. In doing so, PDP augments the delivery of small molecular weight therapeutics, monoclonal antibodies, and nanomedicines, and also mechanistically sensitize tumors to both chemotherapy and immunotherapy. The research has the potential to prolong patient survival, while mitigating dose-limiting toxicities and improving patient quality of life.

April 1, 2024

Faster recovery, reduced hospital stays, and a quicker return to normal activities are the most evident advantages of laparoscopic surgery. More than 13 million laparoscopic procedures are performed every year. Laparoscopic surgery has become the technique of choice for virtually every kind of abdominal surgery. Robot‐assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy is the most common surgical approach performed for prostate cancer. The NIH project will allow the investigators to develop an advanced hyperspectral imaging system for robotics assisted laparoscopic surgery. Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) provides not only high‐resolution spatial images but also spectral data at each pixel. Both spectral and spatial information can be used to identify various types of tissues including malignant tumors. The utilization of quantitative hyperspectral imaging for robot‐assisted laparoscopic surgery represents a major innovation in minimally invasive surgery with the aim of improving surgical outcomes.

March 29, 2024

The Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) has awarded grants totaling more than $2 million to two University of Texas at Dallas engineers for their research to develop technologies for early detection of oral cancers and to deliver medication past the blood-spinal cord barrier. Dr. Baowei Fei, professor of bioengineering, received a $1 million grant to develop a handheld imaging tool for early detection of oral and oropharyngeal cancers. Dr. Zhenpeng Qin, associate professor of mechanical engineering and bioengineering, also was awarded $1 million to advance his work to deliver medication to treat spinal cord tumors.

Read more about the news: https://news.utdallas.edu/health-medicine/cprit-grants-2024/