A Johns Hopkins engineering-led team has been awarded $20.9 million over five years to enhance surgical capabilities to treat cancer.
The award is part of $150 million in funding announced in August by the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) in support of the Biden administration’s Cancer Moonshot initiative.
Led by Emad Boctor of the Laboratory for Computational Sensing and Robotics and the Malone Center for Engineering in Healthcare, the team includes collaborators from JHU’s schools of Engineering and Medicine, the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, and industry partners.
They are developing a noncontact photoacoustic endoscope designed to give surgeons an enhanced view of the surgical field without disrupting workflows. When paired with a multicancer fluorescent contrast agent, this tool enables surgeons to identify and remove microscopic cancer remnants during tumor-removal procedures.
The project also explores using existing fluorescent dyes with the new endoscope to visualize critical anatomical structures, such as hidden blood vessels and nerves, to avoid accidental damage during surgery.
This effort is part of the ARPA-H Precision Surgical Interventions program, which seeks to improve surgical outcomes for cancer patients. By making surgeries more effective and reducing the need for repeat procedures, the program aims to extend and save lives.
“This project exemplifies our commitment to life-changing innovations that directly improve human health,” says Ed Schlesinger, the Whiting School’s Benjamin T. Rome Dean.
The team is working on a prototype and anticipates beginning human trials within five years. Other key contributors include Johns Hopkins researchers Jin U. Kang, the Jacob Suter Jammer Professor; Peter Kazanzides; and Russell H. Taylor, a John C. Malone Professor, alongside industry and institutional partners.
Additionally, Nicholas Durr of the Department of Biomedical Engineering has received ARPA-H funding to partner with collaborators at Dartmouth College to develop a novel laparoscope that could improve robotic cancer surgeries.