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November 07, 2008, 04:08 PM ET
A Quicker Response to Cancer
Mechanical engineers at the University of Maryland at College Park are developing an MRI-compatible robot to perform breast biopsies and remove cancerous tumors in a single MRI session.
The device is the work of Jaydev Desai, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at the university. Mr. Desai has been working with Kevin Lister, a mechanical-engineering graduate student, and collaborating with Rao Gullapalli, an associate professor of diagnostic radiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, in Baltimore.
The robot will be controlled by a doctor and will share space with a patient inside a MRI machine. If a tumor is discovered during a procedure and found to be cancerous, the robot will insert a probe to destroy the cancerous cells.
The team was recently awarded a $1.27-million grant from the National Institutes of Health to complete the robot. In the latest installment of Wired Campus TV, below, Mr. Desai and Mr. Lister use their prototype to demonstrate how the device will work. —David DeBolt
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