Nigerian-born radiographer invents cancer google

Dr. Achilefu Samuel, a Professor of Radiography, Biomedical Engineering, Biochemistry, Molecular Biophysics and the Director of Optical Radiology Lab (ORL) at Washington University in St. Louis, has led a team to develop a high-tech florescence goggle that can help surgeons visualise cancer in vivo during surgical intervention.

The cancer goggle works on the principle of optical imaging.  Optical imaging enables real-time visualisation of intrinsic and exogenous contrast within biological tissues.

According to Washington University in St. Louis, Achilefu’s cancer goggles are designed to make it easier for surgeons to distinguish malignant cells from healthy cells, helping to ensure that no stray tumour cells are left behind during surgery to remove a cancerous tumor.

The glasses could reduce the need for additional surgical procedures and the subsequent stress on patients, as well as time and expense.

The system uses custom video technology, a head-mounted display and a targeted molecular display that attaches itself to cancer cells, giving them a ‘glow’ when viewed through the eye gear.

With Achilefu’s technology, surgeons are able to see precisely which tissues to cut out, all in one operation. First, they inject a specially-formulated peptide dye which can seek, and attach itself to, cancerous cells.

This dye has fluorescent capabilities that make it glow at a wavelength not visible to the human eye.

The goggles have a sensor placed in them which, according to Achilefu, “captures fluorescence from the dye lodged in cancer tissue and projects the image into the surgeon’s field of view”.

This creates an augmented reality that allows the surgeons to see cancer cells glowing, providing real-time guidance during surgery.

Achilefu was born in northern Nigeria in the 1960s. His father worked in hospitals and clinics in the North until the civil war broke out in 1967, forcing his family to their ancestral home in the east where they stayed until the civil war ended in 1970.

He was one of the five students who won a French government scholarship and received a PhD in molecular and materials chemistry at the University of Nancy. After receiving a PhD in molecular physical and materials chemistry at the University of Nancy, and postdoctoral training in oxygen transport mechanisms. Achilefu moved to St. Louis, US in 1993 to join the nascent Discovery Research Department at Mallinckrodt Medical Inc.

In 2001, he joined Mallinckrodt institute of radiology at Washington University. Currently, he serves as a Professor of Medicine at Washington University School of Medicine