Nigerian scientist wins award for developing cancer-visualising glasses
A NIGERIAN-born scientist, Dr. Samuel Achilefu, has won the
prestigious St. Louis Award for 2014 for creating cancer-visualizing glasses.
Achilefu, a professor of Radiology and Biomedical Engineering,
and his team developed the imaging technology in cancer diagnosis into a
wearable night vision-like goggles so surgeons could see the cancer cells while
operating.
Breakthru Nigeria: Telling our Success stories.
Achilefu with the glasses on
“They basically have
to operate in the dark,” Bloomberg Businessweek quoted Achilefu, 52, as saying.
“I thought, what if we create something that let’s you see
things that aren’t available to the ordinary human eye.”
Achilefu won a scholarship from the French government to
study at the University of Nancy, according to St. Louis Post-Dispatch, a
regional newspaper in St. Louis, U.S., and is the 87th person to receive the
annual award since it was established in 1931.
Meanwhile, a Nigerian woman based in the United Kingdom,
Nina Ndubuisi has invented a lifestyle programme that has successfully cut back
excess weight in women and children in Nigeria, Canada, and elsewhere, raising
hopes of containment of obesity especially among the rich.
Ndubuisi, who is a paramedic, while speaking in Abuja at the
inauguration of ‘Slim With Ease,’ a global forum for reaching out to those
affected by excess weight, stressed that her unique formula in cutting unwanted
weight thrives on healthy lifestyle and determination.
Addressing hundreds of women and children, mostly those
affected by excess weight gain, Nina said her priority is to help Nigerian
women, children and men curb excess weight gain, noting that her goal is to
eradicate obesity from the childhood of African children as well as other races
around the world. Her programme, which has impacted women in Canada, UK and a
number of African countries, has huge following on social media.
Breakthru Nigeria: Telling our Success stories.
“Slim With Ease is
not a revolutionary weight loss program that is sweeping across not just
Nigeria but the whole world right now. It was inspired by my weight loss of
60kg in two years. I use to be very fat. People used to call me names on the
street. People mocked me and I was determined to find a solution to my weight
problem.
Also, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has blamed
childhood obesity, especially in developing countries, on the marketing of
sugar-rich non-alcoholic beverages and ultra-processed, energy-dense,
nutrient-poor foods.
Director-General Margaret Chan yesterday told the Commission
on Ending Childhood Obesity meeting in Hong Kong that “childhood obesity can
erode the benefits that arrive with social and economic progress.’’
She said that childhood obesity must be accepted as a
significant and urgent threat to health that was relevant in all countries.
Chan said that governments must take the lead and now was
the time to safeguard the future of every child.
She commended the interim report on the work carried out
thus far by the commission and commended the group.
Chan warned that voluntary initiatives were not likely to be
sufficient. “To be successful, efforts aimed at reducing the marketing of
unhealthy foods and beverages need support from regulatory and statutory
approaches. Perhaps most importantly, you defined a moral responsibility and
stated where it must lie.
“None of the factors that cause obesity are under the
control of the child,” she said.
Chan said that the number of overweight or obese infants and
young children increased from 32 million globally in 1990 to 42 million in
2013.
Chan said in Africa alone, the number of overweight or obese
children increased from 4 to 9 million over the same period.
Breakthru Nigeria: Telling our Success stories.
Married with two young children, Achilefu moved to St. Louis
after he was hired by Mallinckrodt to start a new research department.
“Our efforts start with two words: ‘What if?’” Achilefu said
during his acceptance speech.
“These words may sound simple, but they embody the belief
that each person has the potential to make a difference, if only he or she can
take the time to understand the problem.”
According to Bloomberg, the researchers’ technology requires
two steps: First, surgeons inject a tiny quantity of an infrared fluorescent
marker into the patient’s bloodstream. The peptides contained in the marker
enable it to locate cancer cells and buries itself inside.
After the tracer flows through a patient’s body and clears
from non-cancerous tissue – which lasts about four hours – the operation would
begin. Wearing the goggle, the doctor can inspect tumours under an infrared
light that reacts with the dye, causing cancer cells to glow from within.
This month, the goggles have been used on humans for the
first time by surgeons at the Washington University School of Medicine.
Four patients suffering from breast cancer and over two
dozen patients with melanoma or liver cancer have been operated on using the
goggles since they were developed.
“The goggles function fantastically,” says Ryan Fields, a
surgical oncologist who is collaborating with Achilefu to improve on the
technology.
“They allow us to see the cells in real time, which is
critical. Because the marker has not yet been FDA-approved, doctors are
currently using a different, somewhat inferior marker that also reacts with
infrared light.”
Julie Margenthaler, a breast cancer surgeon, says tens of
thousands of women who had had breast cancer lumpectomies go back for second
operations every year because of the inability to see the microscopic extent of
the tumours.
By Chuka Odittah (Abuja) | 24 June 2015
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