NCI’s Center for Global Health Announces First Major Research Grants to Support Portable Technologies

By The ASCO Post
October 15, 2014

Jonathan Celli, PhD

Tayyaba Hasan, PhD

Kathleen Schmeler, MD

Rebecca Richards-Kortum, PhD

Miriam Cremer, MD

Louise Kuhn, PhD

Robert Murphy, MD

Jean Anderson, MD

Act with Love

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) Center for Global Health announced grants that will support the development and validation of low-cost, portable technologies. These technologies have the potential to improve early detection, diagnosis, and noninvasive or minimally invasive treatment of several cancer types with a particularly high prevalence in low- and middle-income countries, noted Ted Trimble, MD, Director of the Center for Global Health. The researchers who received grants under the Center’s first major funding program will be incorporated in studies in India (oral cancers), Brazil (cervical cancer), Colombia (cervical neoplasia, or abnormal cell growth), South Africa (human papillomavirus [HPV] and cervical carcinoma), and the Philippines (cervical dysplasia).

As part of this program, the Center for Global Health  has also partnered with the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering at the National Institutes of Health for one of the grants.

Grant Recipients

The grantees are:

• Jonathan Celli, PhD, and Tayyaba Hasan, PhD, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston: Low-cost enabling technology for image-guided photodynamic therapy of oral leukoplakia.
• Kathleen Schmeler, MD, MD Anderson Cancer Center, and Rebecca Richards-Kortum, PhD, Rice University, Houston: High-resolution microendoscopy for cervical cancer diagnosis.
• Miriam Cremer, MD, Magee-Women’s Research Institute and Foundation, Pittsburgh: Adaptation and testing of the CryoPen cryotherapy device for treating cervical neoplasia for use in low-income settings.
• Louise Kuhn, PhD, Columbia University, New York: Adapting the Cepheid GeneXpert test to detect HPV.
• Robert Murphy, MD, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois: Low-cost test for hepatitis C virus to identify patients at risk for developing hepatocellular carcinoma.
• Jean Anderson, MD, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore: Assessing the performance, safety, and efficacy of a new cryotherapy device using liquid CO₂.
• Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation, Santa Monica, California: Low-cost, portable computer-aided detection and diagnostic tools for noninvasive screening of breast cancer. ■