Cancer Warriors & Radiobiophotonics - Dr. Rao Papineni

Cancer Warriors and Radiobiophotonics at Cancun RRS 2017

Initiating this blog on 9/11 Remembrance Day, would like to share some of our recent events and also the program ahead from my lab.

Late Breaking Presentation

We are pleased to share that the "Late Breaking" Research submission

Title: "Focused irradiation of EDL muscle bundle and functional study- a feasibility study." 

 Dr. Rao Papineni & Dr. George Rodney

was accepted at the  Radiation Research Society  (RRS 2017) Meeting at Cancun.  This Work from Papineni & Rodney Labs will showcase the Feasibility & the Novel Approach in Assessing Radiation Effects on individual Muscle.  With one in three cancer patients loosing the battle due to muscle related issues, this technological advance will be crucial in future mitigation studies. This work will highlight the design and development of a miniaturized X-ray muscle Irradiation system.

#Cachexia #MuscleAtrophy #X-Ray  

The 63rd Annual Meeting of the Radiation Research Society is to be held at the Grand Fiesta Americana Coral Beach in Cancun, Mexico on October 15-18, 2017. The scientific program covers state-of-the-art in radiation sciences with an emphasis on Translating Radiation Research: From Risk to Therapy.  Here, I had the privilege to design and develop a symposium on a new and growing field of Radiobiophotonics.

SYMPOSIUM  Recent Advances in Radiobiophotonics, Nanomedicine and Imaging

  
Chair: Dr. Rao Papineni

Look forward to seeing many of you at Cancun.


Finally, adding the short article that was requested by a Tabloid to showcase the 25 year achievement in grooming young minds towards advance science, medicine and innovation.

 http://www.chennaicitynews.net/news/nextgen-cancer-warriors-in-making-by-dr-rao-v-l-papineni-53722/

               

              NextGen Cancer Warriors in Making

                                    by Dr. Rao V. L. Papineni

 

The bitter truth is that cancer the deadly human scourge will plague humanity for generations to come.  We might have to chalk out Moonshot, Mars, and Jupitershot battles with time, to win this war.  A silent movement has been taking place at scores of research labs to coax, cajole, and entice young minds to get baptized into Cancer Research.  We invite High School students and impart scientific knowledge, training, and encouragement grooming them for future science and medicine program.  High school/college students join my laboratory or Papineni Labs Projects elsewhere during summer as interns and broaden their horizons. We are proud to celebrate 25th summer in training young minds akin to gurukul traditions.  At every opportunity, I keep remembering my favorite teacher (Hindi) Mr. K. Sridhar from Hindu Theological high School, Madras.  He used to inculcate us with appropriate slokas the power and value of knowledge transfer and to train students. 

The bitter truth is that cancer the deadly human scourge will plague humanity for generations to come.

It all started when my mentor Prof. Tom Boyde at University of HongKong asked me one summer day early 1990’s to draft a plan and proposal to train a summer student from Eton College, United Kingdom.  Thus I started with this heart-warming knowledge transfer program.  Though all students did not directly work on cancer related projects, they definitely had scope to pursue oncology ahead.  I still recall the first mini-project Jonathan Leong of Eton worked on-  To trick the immune machinery in making better affinity antibodies.  Simple idea back in 90’s I believed, turns out a useful path for current cancer immunotherapy.

Dr.Jyotsna Rao with Arnav and Pranayi

  They themselves have their own robust summer training programs.  This summer turned out to be exciting with couple of high school students Arnav Sankaranthi of Fremont, California, and Ms. Pranayi Pala of Dallas, taking courage and embarked on a trans-continental trip to work on a collaborative project on Radiomics.  They both joined Dr. Jyotsna Rao at Apollo Hospital India learning all about cancer Diagnostics while working on other project.  Both these kids accomplished quite a lot during the 2- week program and are working on a short review article.  Earlier this summer, Arnav along with his twin brother Abhinav  Sankaranthi and Ms. Somya Moyya of UCSD went through training at Dr. George Rodney’s lab at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston. 

                 students/interns                                                                                                                         

  There is no clear data; however I believe these summer research programs going on for decades all over the globe have generated great cancer warriors.  The cross-border and trans-continental training programs will add new perspectives and sharpen the skills of the young minds. It’s time to collaborate, exchange ideas and skills in this combat.   Cancer: the horrid scourge is not invincible.   

In an Industry setup, my lab had more opportunities to young minds from different walks of life. I am grateful to my friends and collaborators Dr. Shahid Umar of KUMC, Dr. George Rodney, Baylor College of Medicine, Dr. Jyotsna Rao, Apollo Hospitals, and others who help in this process.

Summer Science and Lab Fun

Dr. Rao V. L. Papineni is an Adjunct faculty member at University of Kansas Medical Center, and a molecular theragnostics scientist at PXI,  USA. He received his doctoral degree in Biochemistry from University of Hong Kong (British Terr). Dr. Papineni had his early education from University of Madras, where he earned his Bachelors and Master’s Degree. After ten years in Research and Faculty positions at University of Hong Kong and Baylor college of Medicine (USA), he joined Kodak/Carestream Health, USA.  Dr. Papineni has made several inventions and chaired scientific sessions in International

Papineni Labs are Biomedical Research Labs in Honor of my Father Mr. Papineni Venkateswara Rao.

http://www.radres.org/blogpost/961725/250704/Cancer-Therapy--Radiobiophotonics-with-Rao-Papineni
 

    "Molecular Imaging - Wisdom to See for Maladies to Flee"
                                                                                                                                             Dr. Rao V. L. Papineni

 

Visualize Man Molecularly - Molecular Imaging in Clinics.

The Molecular Imaging World Congress WMIC 2016 just concluded at New York last week. 

 Apart from our three presentations at the Congress, I was more excited with the outcome of a Scientific Session I moderated along with Thomas Helbich - "First-in-Man & Clinical Studies in Oncology" Moderator(s): Thomas Helbich (Austria)and Rao Papineni (USA).

Undoubtedly, the scope of Molecular Imaging in clinics remains untapped, yet!  This after a good decade of the hype and hysteria. My take here is that there are quite a number of gate-keepers and fair weather stake holders outside of the Molecular Imaging field that is shaping the entry into clinical arena - which is partly good, for the caution taken, while mostly frustrating for a hardcore researcher.

Four years ago, Sam Gambhir of Stanford concluded in his review (2012) with the following note; "To expedite clinical translation of promising imaging agents and instruments, we need to prove its clinical utility. This should be accomplished by increasing the number of rapid first-in-man efforts and by demonstrating safety and reproducibility through standardization of techniques. Academic groups developing imaging agents need to collaborate with each other to accelerate clinical translation and to perform multicenter international clinical trials. Novel models that involve academia, industry (pharmaceutical and imaging companies), governments, and foundations need to be better explored. Without help from industry, academic groups will never be able to bring enough molecular imaging agents into pilot trials. Intellectual property issues related to novel imaging agents also need to be considered along with business models to show profitability for specific imaging agents and their clinical applications" (Phys Rev 2012).

Key Steps Involved in Molecular Imaging- Bench to Clinics

Readers who would like to know about the path assigned for Molecular Imaging to enter Clinics, the following schema from the above Physiological Review issue will be informative.  For general public, Molecular Imaging (MI) is a broad field  that encompasses and not just limited to a range of image technologies allowing  physicians, surgeons, and researchers to noninvasively visualize physiological processes at a cell and molecular level.
Radiation Therapy and Radiation Research are fields rapidly encompassing MI at different levels.  Here, I feel elated to state that my lab made the early attempts integrating MI in the Radiation Research Field (ICRR Poland 2011). The scope in MI- Radiation Therapy is phenomenal and anticipated to be profound, especially with the advances in radiobiophotonics -  Radiobioluminescence, cerenkov luminescence-God light in likes, a potential in radiation therapy imaging (http://www.cancerjournal.net/text.asp?2015/11/1/241/155113 )

Back to the blog, the researchers who presented in the Scientific Session we chaired at WMIC 2016 were from across the globe -  Singapore, Denmark, USA, and different parts of Northern Europe.  Although mostly proof-of-concept studies, the outcome were indeed promising.  The talk that raised eyebrows include the application of uPAR gallium radioligand tagged peptide, showing the potential to circumvent invasive sentinel node surgeries in breast cancer patients.  With 1 in 8 women developing invasive Breast Cancer - such MI based breakthroughs will be extraordinary during operative procedures with lumpectomy or mastectomy.

Other noteworthy presentations ranged from utilization of optoacoustics, magnetic nanotechnology, fluorescence endoscopy; determination of the lesion dimensions of non-melanoma carcinomas during surgical removal; surveillance endoscopy in Barett esophagus were evaluated and deliberated.

Overall, these Pilot programs across the world are steps in the right direction for Molecular Imaging to reach the pinnacle and contribute to the betterment of human health.  It is however imperative;  Radiologists, Surgeons, Pathologists, radiation Oncologists, Academic & Industry Researchers, Health Agencies, Government Regulatory Bodies, Computational Wizards, and Technologists have to interact and collaborate more stringently for the MI benefits to acquire the Moonshot Moment towards clinics and personalized Medicine.

Papineni Labs are Biomedical Research Labs in Honor of my Father Mr. Papineni Venkateswara Rao.

 

 

http://www.radres.org/blogpost/961725/250704/Cancer-Therapy--Radiobiophotonics-with-Rao-Papineni
 
"Molecular Imaging - Wisdom to See for Maladies to Flee"
                                                          Dr. Rao V. L. Papineni