The way Stanislav Emelianov puts it, Mother Nature presented us with the puzzle of breast cancer. But Mother Nature has also provided the tools with which we solve the puzzle.
Emelianov and other researchers in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin give Mother Nature a boost with their engineering acumen and innovation.
They are finding ways to detect breast cancer more effectively, diagnose the types of cancer more precisely, treat it more directly and enhance the quality of life for survivors.
In Emelianov’s case, he and his team are engineering nanoparticles that can extract information from cancer cells and relay the information to physicians in real time.
Faculty members in the Cockrell School of Engineering are also working with tools and materials that enable them to attack cancer at the molecular and cellular levels, where the most effective research can be done.
And there’s still a lot of work to do.
The American Cancer Society estimates that in 2013 in the United States there will be more than 232,000 new cases of breast cancer and more than 39,000 deaths from breast cancer.
In recognition of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, here are a few snapshots of how Cockrell School’s biomedical engineering faculty members are using their engineering expertise and sophisticated means to make differences in cancer research.
