UT runs against cancer

 Towards early cancer diagnostics

“He went to the hospital with a bad pain. Never returned home. His life during his last 7 weeks became a fight against pain.”. This is based on a real case. Not an isolated one. Cancer develops stealthily and by the time the patient feels symptoms it is typically too late. Can we prevent this pain? Can we avoid this unnecessary suffering for so many people?

If detected early, cancer can in many cases be treated or, at least, kept under control ensuring a reasonable quality of life for the patient. If we had a device to test for a given set of biomarkers related to the onset of cancer, in a fast, reliable and affordable way, from a drop of urine (or blood), each person could be periodically screened. If suddenly there is an abnormal variation on the values of some of the biomarkers of a given person, an alarm would be raised and the person sent for further testing.

At the UT, we are working towards the development of devices for early cancer detection: from the actual sensor development, surface chemistry to make the sensor selective to a particular biomarker, to the microfluidics technology to bring the bodily fluids (eg., urine or blood) to the sensor, electronics, module design, big data analysis to the social implications of the technology. With this campaign, would like to raise seed funding to keep advancing the research and to get a step forward towards the realization of a working prototype.

Please, support us on this challenge! Make a contribution or start your own action. Thank you!