Nigerian-born scientist, Samuel Achilefu, wins award for his cancer- Seeing glasses

A Nigerian born scientist, Samuel Achilefu, has won
the prestigious St. Louis Award for 2014 for creating
cancer-visualizing glasses.
Dr. Achilefu, a professor of radiology and biomedical
engineering, and his team developed the imaging
technology in cancer diagnosis into a wearable night
vision-like goggles so surgeons could see the cancer
cells while operating.
“They basically have to operate in the dark,”
Bloomberg Businessweek quoted Dr. Achilefu, 52, as
saying.
“I thought, what if we create something that let’s you
see things that aren’t available to the ordinary human
eye.”
Dr. Achilefu won a scholarship from the French
government to study at the University of Nancy,
according to St. Louis Post-Dispatch, a regional
newspaper in St. Louis, U.S., and is the 87th person
to receive the annual award since it was established
in 1931.
Married with two young children, Dr. Achilefu moved
to St. Louis after he was hired by Mallinckrodt to
start a new research department.
“Our efforts start with two words: ‘What if?’” Dr.
Achilefu said during his acceptance speech.
“These words may sound simple, but they embody the
belief that each person has the potential to make a
difference, if only he or she can take the time to
understand the problem.”
According to Bloomberg, the researchers’ technology
requires two steps: First, surgeons inject a tiny
quantity of an infrared fluorescent marker into the
patient’s bloodstream. The peptides contained in the
marker enables it to locate cancer cells and buries
itself inside.
After the tracer flows through a patient’s body and
clears from non-cancerous tissue – which lasts about
four hours – the operation would begin. Wearing the
goggle, the doctor can inspect tumours under an infra
red light that reacts with the dye, causing cancer cells
to glow from within.
This month, the goggles have been used on humans
for the first time by surgeons at the Washington
University School of Medicine.
Four patients suffering from breast cancer and over
two dozen patients with melanoma or liver cancer
have been operated on using the goggles since they
were developed.
“The goggles function fantastically,” says Ryan Fields,
a surgical oncologist who is collaborating with Dr.
Achilefu to improve on the technology.
“They allow us to see the cells in real time, which is
critical. Because the marker has not yet been FDA-
approved, doctors are currently using a different,
somewhat inferior marker that also reacts with
infrared light.”
Julie Margenthaler, a breast cancer surgeon, says
tens of thousands of women who had had breast
cancer lumpectomies go back for second operations
every year because of the inability to see the
microscopic extent of the tumours.
“Imagine what it would mean if these glasses
eliminated the need for follow-up surgery and the
associated pain, inconvenience and anxiety.”
Dr. Achilefu and his team began work in 2012 after
they received $2.8 million grant from the National
Institutes of Health, according to the St. Louis Post-
Dispatch.
Before then, they had been working on a lean budget
provided by the Department of Defence’s Breast
Cancer Research Program.
After it was developed, the team spent years testing
the technology on mice, rats, and rabbits to confirm
the efficacy of the goggles.
“Nobody would believe us until we showed that the
goggles work,” Dr. Achilefu says.
The Food and Drug Administration are still reviewing
the goggles and a related dye Dr. Achilefu and his co-
researchers developed, according to Washington
University in St. Louis, a St. Louis based journal.
Dr. Achilefu says he intends to keep Washington
University as the primary centre for clinical trials to
evaluate the technology in patients.
“Making a difference in society should be the goal of
everybody,” Dr. Achilefu