New device could decrease time between detection and treatments for Cancer

Dr. Yong Joe-Kim, director of The Acoustics & Signal Processing Laboratory at Texas A&M University, and his students are conducting research that seeks to develop a method of cancer detection that identifies the mechanical properties of cancer cells.
Kim, who is an associate professor and Pioneer Natural Resources Faculty Fellow II in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Texas A&M, and his team is utilizing a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant.
Kim's team worked with students from the NanoBio Systems Laboratory, which is directed by Dr. Arum Han, associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Texas A&M, to develop an acoustic manipulation device. The device has the potential to decrease the amount of time needed to determine the effectiveness of a treatment. The acoustophoretic microfluidics device the team built allows it to utilize the pressure generated in the small device to manipulate small fluid samples such as blood drawn during an examination. The device introduces an acoustic vibration to the sample causing the unique mechanical properties of each cell to react differently.
Since mechanical properties such as compressibility, size, density and the response to sound waves are unique for each cell in the human body, the cells reactions to the device can be viewed under a microscope allowing for clearer identification of cancerous cells.
"This is different from the current cancer detection methods as we are identifying how a cancer cell is behaving based on its mechanical properties in response to a specific treatment," said Kim.