Next-Generation Cancer Diagnostics

Govind Srimathveeravalli, associate professor of mechanical and industrial engineering and director of the Center for Personalized Health Monitoring in the Institute for Applied Life Sciences, oversees a translational research program to advance minimally invasive medical devices for the treatment and diagnosis of cancer. The most recent spin-off company from his lab, Kunam Medical, is focused on a pioneering technology that can disrupt the way cancer biopsy procedures are done. 

The technology developed in Srimathveeravalli’s lab induces the on-demand release of high-quality, normally inaccessible material from cells within a large tumor volume—resulting in a far greater sampling of potentially malignant tissue than a standard needle biopsy. As Srimathveeravalli explains, these samples are “enriched with intracellular material such as DNA, RNA, protein, and metabolites, that can be directly fed into existing cancer diagnostic pipelines.” His lab has developed devices to apply this technology for the genomic diagnosis of prostate cancer, with the goal of improving appropriate care and reducing morbidity from overtreatment in men who will experience the disease. 

Srimathveeravalli is currently at work on refining this technology so that it is suitable for use in office-based clinic settings with minimal sedation requirements. This includes a collaboration with Stephen Solomon, MD, of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, aimed at translating his groundbreaking new diagnostic technique to patients.