Tag: prostate cancer

ECpE Department receives major external research awards

Posted on | Kristin Clague

During the months of July through September 2016, Iowa State University’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering received many external research awards from the Department of Energy (DOE), the National Science Foundation (NSF) and other groups.

Coover in the FallMajor grants from the DOE include an award of $1,162,477 for a project entitled “Autonomous Tools for Attack Surface Reduction,” with Manimaran Govindarasu as Principal Investigator (PI) and Venkataramana Ajjarap and Doug Jacobson as Co-Principal Investigators (Co-PI). The total anticipated amount of the award is $2,981,103. The DOE also awarded $1,318,903 for a project called “Novel Light Extraction and Utilization, Organic LED (OLED) Core Technology Research: Enhanced Light Extraction from Low Cost White OLEDs (WOLEDs) Fabricated on Novel Patterned Substrates,” with Ruth Shinar as PI and Rana Biswas and Joseph Shinar as Co-PIs.

A variety of projects received grants from the NSF, with one highlight being $4,054,476 for the project “WI-ECSEL Scholarship Program (Women in Electrical, Computer, and Software Engineering as Leaders,” with Joseph Zambreno as PI and Doug Jacobson, Phillip Harrison Jones, Lisa Larson, Mani Mina, Sarah Rajala, Sarah Rodriguez, Diane Rover and Mack Shelley as Co-PIs.

For more information on grants received during the months of July through September, visit this link: https://www.ece.iastate.edu/external-research-awards-july-september-2016/.

Research discovery helps cancer prevention

Posted on | Emily Benda
This type of chip offers 50-100 fold more sensitivity compared with the traditional ELISA for detecting biomarkers for prostate cancer.
This type of chip offers 50-100 fold more sensitivity compared with the traditional ELISA for detecting biomarkers for prostate cancer.

Prostate Cancer (PC) is the second most common cancer and the sixth leading cause of cancer death among men worldwide. The worldwide PC burden is expected to grow to 1.7 million new cases and 499 000 new deaths by 2030. ECpE’s Dr. Long Que and his laboratory have created a chip that may help combat against this prominent illness.

Que’s laboratory recently developed an optofluidic chip-based diagnostic system. This type of chip offers 50-100 fold more sensitivity compared with the traditional ELISA for detecting biomarkers such as prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and neuroendocrine marker (NEM) for prostate cancer (PC).

By testing clinic samples using this type of chip along with the assistance of Que’s collaborator Dr. Girsh Shah, it appears that combined NEM+PSA test can significantly improve reliability of PC detection and significantly reduce the number of diagnostic biopsies.  

This type of chip not only can be made disposable thereby avoiding any possible cross-contamination during the test, but also can offer many advantages such as elimination of the labeled antigen, the need of the sophisticated equipment and the highly trained individuals. These advantages make the technology suitable for point-of-care application to screen elderly male populations for PC and to monitor the progress of patients undergoing PC treatment. As early detection is essential for good PC prognosis and treatment options, this chip will assist in proactive PC prevention.

Que’s biomedical technology has been featured in publications such as World Biomedical Frontiers and Uro Today. For more information, visit the feature on Uro Today.

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