On the TV show Shark Tank, contestants pitch business proposals in the hopes of winning money to turn their ideas into reality.
Dr. Lisa Privette Vinnedge was on the winning team. She says, "Our proposal {is} to adapt nanoparticles to be able to label where cancers are in the body and eventually use those same particles to, not only see the tumor, but treat it at the same time so that you can identify the tumor and know that the medication is getting there."
The team will now write up a formal proposal and use the $100,000 prize to begin the research.
Privette Vinnedge says the design and testing phase will take about a year. Clinical trials could begin after that.
Winning team members included:
- Lisa Privette Vinnedge, PhD, from Cincinnati Children鈥檚 Hospital Medical Center and research instructor in the department of pediatrics at the UC College of Medicine.
- Kris Huang, MD, PhD, assistant professor in the department of radiology at the UC College of Medicine and a UC Health radiation oncologist.
- Syed Ahmad, MD, professor in the department of surgery and surgical oncologist and director of the UC Cancer Institute鈥檚 Gastrointestinal Cancer Center.
- John Yin, PhD, faculty member from UC鈥檚 College of Engineering.
- Xiaoting Zhang, PhD, associate professor and researcher in the department of cancer biology.
- Trisha Wise-Draper, MD, PhD, physician and researcher in the division of hematology oncology.
- Pheruza Tarapore, PhD, assistant professor in the department of environmental health.
- Mariano Fernandez-Ulloa, MD, a professor in the department of nuclear medicine
- William Porter, MD, resident in radiation oncology.
