Research Description

Healthcare professionals perform 1.2 million surgical and stenting procedures annually to treat heart attacks in the United States, yet, despite medical intervention, one third of treated patients still develop heart failure within 5 years of treatment initiation. Drugs, such as the cytokine SDF-1α, show promise in reversing tissue scarring after a myocardial infarction (MI) and lead to lower instances of heart failure in animal models. However, such medications work best if provided immediately following a MI, because early coagulative necrosis begins just hours after an ischemic event. Moreover, targeting the heart via a subcutaneous injection or a pill is difficult, as demonstrated through biodistribution studies. Here we propose the development of a localized drug delivery system that provides the controlled infusion of macromolecular drugs directly into heart tissue.

Research Team

William Hiesinger, M.D., Assistant Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery & Surgical Director of Mechanical Circulatory Support, Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery

Prof. Zhenan Bao, K.K. Lee Professor of Engineering and Chair, Department of Chemical Engineering Stanford University

Robyn Fong, Life Science Research Professional

Alex Abramson, Ph.D., postdoc in Bao Lab in Chemical Engineering, Stanford University

Rohan Shad, M.D., Hiesinger Lab in Cardiothoracic Surgery, Stanford University

Research Description

Melanoma accounts for 65% of deaths from skin cancer. When treating melanoma, sentinel lymph node biopsy is critical to determine whether the cancer has metastasized, since this predicts survival. Sentinel lymph node biopsy is particularly challenging in the 10-20% of melanoma cases that occur in the head and neck, where the anatomical structures are complex and delicate. Pre-operative 3D imaging with SPECT-CT provides a map of lymph nodes (including the sentinel node) draining the area surrounding the melanoma; surgeons can refer to these images to identify and locate the sentinel lymph node in relation to other structures. However, these images are viewed on a computer monitor and surgeons must retain the visual data in memory as they look to and from the surgical field. We hypothesize that pre-operative localization of sentinel nodes would be more accurate and efficient using augmented reality (AR) visualization, where the surgeon could wear a headset that displays the SPECT-CT imaging data directly in their line of sight. We propose to develop such a wearable, image-guided surgical tool using the Microsoft HoloLens 2 and to evaluate the surgeon’s localization accuracy with this tool in two studies that will provide important preliminary data for future development and clinical in vivo evaluation.

Research Team

Prof. Bruce Daniel, M.D., Professor of Radiology (Body Imaging) and, by courtesy, of Bioengineering

Dr. Benjamin Franc, Clinical Professor of Radiology- Rad/Nuclear Medicine

Steffi Perkins, Ph.D., Medical Mixed and Extended Reality Lab, Stanford University

Heying Duan, M.D., MBA, Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging Lab, Stanford University