Translational Engineering in Cancer

Dartmouth College, Hanover NH

Investigators

Linked publications, trials & patents

Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY: TRANSLATIONAL ENGINEERING IN CANCER (TEC) The Translational Engineering in Cancer (TEC) Research Program of the Dartmouth Cancer Center (DCC) utilizes engineering and physics methods to develop and translate new approaches that impact the care of cancer patients nationally, regionally, and within the DCC catchment area by providing access to novel image- guided therapies, treatments, and sensors for molecular and cellular function. Members pursue these goals through research distributed among three themes—Surgical Image Guidance, Radiation Monitoring and Treatment, and Cellular/Molecular Sensing and Contrast—to discover and investigate new approaches for engineering, imaging, and sensing applications in screening, detection, diagnosis, or management of cancer and its treatment. TEC consists of 32 Members from 11 departments that span Dartmouth’s College of Arts & Sciences, Thayer School of Engineering, and Geisel School of Medicine, and involve physicians engaged in clinical practices in Surgery, Radiation Oncology and Applied Sciences, Pathology and Radiology at Dartmouth Health (DH). It is led by Keith Paulsen, PhD, an imaging and computational expert who has served in this role over the last several competing renewal funding cycles, and Irene Georgakoudi, PhD, a device and optical sensing expert, who is newly recruited to be Program Co-Director starting June 2024. TEC Members meld their expertise in biophysics, biophotonics, engineering, and computational sciences with the clinical specialties of surgery, radiation oncology, medical oncology, pathology, and radiology, among others, to execute a cancer- relevant research funding portfolio totaling $7.2M in annual direct costs (11% increase since 2019), of which $6.9M is peer-reviewed (including $3.0M from NCI, or 43% of peer-reviewed funding). The group published 257 cancer-related papers during the current funding period, which included 43% intra-programmatic, 23% inter- programmatic, and 15% inter-NCI cancer center collaborative manuscripts; 12% of these publications are high impact as defined by the Program. TEC members activated treatment and interventional clinical trials that enrolled 184 and 721 patients, respectively, and used all DCC shared resources to support their work. To accelerate clinical impact, multiple TEC startups have been founded, including three new entities during the current funding period that have achieved regulatory clearances and/or are engaged in pivotal multi-center trials of their technologies. TEC Members were inventors on 143 patent filings, 70 issued patents, and 60 patents licensed during the current funding period. In the next funding period, TEC will continue to prioritize catchment area-relevant cancer research in collaboration with Community Outreach and Engagement, leverage the depth of experience and breadth of opportunities in entrepreneurship, promote and support clinical evaluation of our technologies, and mentor our junior faculty and students to become national leaders in cancer-related engineering.