Biomedical engineers at Cornell University are taking part in groundbreaking research that appears to be a stepping stone toward eliminating 90 percent of cancer deaths.
Cornell professor of biomedical engineering Michael King has been leading a research team for four and a half years. The research performed by King’s team is focused on combating metastasis (METT-AST-ISS-ISS), the process by which invasive cancer cells spread through the body in the bloodstream. Metastasis is responsible for a majority of cancer deaths.
The research team consists of 10 Ph. D. students and a half-dozen staff members, along with undergraduate students. The project was borne from a larger initiative started by the National Cancer Institute back in 2009, when it created a dozen Physical Sciences-Oncology centers to bring together engineers and scientists with cancer biologists to find innovative new ways to fight cancer.
King says the work taking place at Cornell is unlike any other, and he hopes the concept can also apply to other diseases in the future. The team’s procedure has been tested on human blood samples as well as live mice, and researchers hope to use longer-term animal experiments, before the ultimate goal of human clinical trials, which could still be several years away.
