$13M ARPA-H Award for Breakthrough 3D Imaging To Detect Lung Cancer Early
Soner Sonmezoglu, ECE assistant professor, was awarded a $13 million grant from the ARPA-H, titled “PAIL: PhotoAcoustic Imaging technology for diagnostic Lung assessment.” The result of the effort will be a radically new optical photoacoustic imaging system with advanced image reconstruction algorithms to assist in diagnosing and treating cancer and other major diseases.
This article originally appeared on Northeastern Global News. It was published by Cynthia McCormick Hibbert. Main photo: Soner Sonmezoglu, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, is leading a team that will use photo-acoustic imaging techniques for early-stage lung cancer assessment before they grow and spread. Photo Matthew Modoono/Northeastern
Breakthrough 3D imaging to detect lung cancer early developed by Northeastern researcher
A Northeastern University researcher is developing new imaging techniques that would allow physicians to detect lung cancer earlier than ever.
Soner Sonmezoglu, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, is leading a team funded by ARPA-H to create an imaging system that will identify lung cancers earlier than ever. Photo by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University
Soner Sonmezoglu is leading a multi-institutional team that will develop a system that uses a miniaturized probe the size of a grain of rice and high-resolution, 3D imagery to recognize early-stage cancer before it grows and spreads.
“We are building a technology at Northeastern to identify the tumors if they are malignant or benign when they are small,” says Sonmezoglu, Northeastern assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering.
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the U.S., accounting for one in five cancer deaths, according to the American Cancer Society, which says that patients whose malignancies are treated before they spread to other parts of the body have a higher five-year survival rate.
The problem is that current imaging techniques do not have high enough resolution to determine whether tumors in their early stages are malignant or benign without the aid of a biopsy, says Sonmezoglu, the principal investigator for the project funded by an award up to $13.2 million from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health.
And “biopsies have a lot of complications,” he says. “They can cause the lung to collapse,” among other things.
“They also put a financial burden on the healthcare system because a biopsy is an expensive procedure,” Sonmezoglu says.
The system being developed at Northeastern will use a disposable probe that is 1.5 millimeters in diameter and a reusable electronic box to gather high-resolution, 3D images that convey functional and structural information about tumors.
It is called an electronic photonic photoacoustic imaging system and will be the first of its kind, says Sonmezoglu, an expert in integrated circuits and microfabrication, which use photons instead of electrons to process and distribute information.
“This technology enables us to miniaturize the probe that touches the lung tissues through a bronchoscope,” he says. “It’s more than an order of magnitude smaller than the other probes that exist today.”
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