Areas of Research :: Medical Sciences :: Downstate Medical Center

Dr. Randall Barbour - Imaging Technology
More sensitive, more portable, less expensive - that's the promise of a new imaging technology being developed at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, by Dr. Randall Barbour.  

The new technology, being marketed and developed by NIRx Medical Technologies in SUNY Downstate Medical Center's Advanced Biotechnology Incubator, uses optical tomography, which analyzes the scatter patterns of near infrared light, to create accurate images that analyze blood flow to tissue.

Already in clinical trials for breast cancer, optical tomography, could also prove accurate in mapping the ravages of Alzheimer's and rheumatic joint disease. It's fitting that this major new imaging technology is being developed at Downstate - the birthplace of MRI, and where the first human images using MRI were developed by Dr. Raymond Damadian in 1977.

Dr. John Chapin - Biosensors
Packs of sniffer robo-rats that can be guided by remote control to conduct surveillance at airports or detect explosives in cars and buildings?

It's not science fiction, but serious science with Homeland Security applications being conducted at SUNY Downstate Medical Center by Dr. John Chapin.

In a project funded by DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), Chapin has demonstrated that rats fitted with microelectronics can be guided through inaccessible, difficult, dangerous, and dark environments - and be trained to perform tasks as cued by a teleoperator, including searching for odor targets such as explosives or contraband. Rats perform as well as dogs in such odor detection tasks, and are less expensive to house, train, and maintain. And because they can move and travel in ways that traditional robots can't, they have great potential in search and rescue missions after a disaster or terrorist attack.

The work is an off-shoot of Chapin's main research focus - developing neural prostheses that would allow people paralyzed by stroke or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease) to move again.

Chapin's training method ensures that the rats are fully under control, while video-camera/transmitters carried by the rats in backpacks allow handlers to remotely guide the rat through different spaces.

Polytechnic University in Brooklyn is collaborating with Downstate on developing wireless data systems that will enable large teams of rats to rapidly search large areas and small chem/bio sensor chips that the rats will carry.

Dr. Josef Michl and Dr. Matthew R. Pincus - Marker for Pancreatic Carcinoma
Pancreatic cancer, a rapidly spreading cancer that is difficult to detect, is the third most common gastrointestinal cancer in humans and is the cause of almost 32,000 cancer-related deaths in the United States each year.

The five year survival for patients with this cancer is 4 percent. Novel work by Dr. Josef Michl and Dr. Matthew R. Pincus at SUNY Downstate Medical Center may lead to new ways to identify pancreatic cancer at much earlier stages, when it is more treatable, and to create highly targeted therapies that work by distinguishing cancerous from healthy normal cells.

Applying novel strategies to generate cancer cell-specific monoclonal antibodies, Michl and Pincus have identified a marker that is highly specific for pancratic carcinoma and that may allow earlier diagnosis and targeted treatment of this cancer.

Using advanced computer modeling of molecules that play a central role in cancer development, Pincus and Michl have developed a peptide that, in the laboratory, selectively kills pancreatic cancer cells without affecting normal cells and that blocks growth of pancreatic cancer in in vivo models of this lethal disease. Although not yet approved for testing in humans, this new approach to treating pancreatic cancer is considered extremely promising.

Dr. M.A.Q. Siddiqui - Heart Disease
At SUNY Downstate Medical Center, Dr. M.A.Q. Siddiqui is applying the revolution in biomedical research to the study of heart disease.

As the director of the Center for Cardiovascular and Muscle Research - which counts among its distinguished governing board Noble Laureate Dr. Robert Furchgott - Siddiqui has focused on the molecular mechanisms underlying heart development and cardiac disease.

He and his team of researchers at Downstate have developed molecular-based therapies for cardiac hypertrophy (enlarged failing hearts), ischemic heart disease (oxygen deprivation) and hypertension.

Siddiqui is also working with Cytopia Inc, to develop therapies that will improve the pumping action of the heart - demonstrating the positive power of forging collaborative links between basic scientists, clinicians, and private companies.

Dr. Henri Tiedge - RNA Molecule Tumor Marker
SUNY Downstate Medical Center's Dr. Henri Tiedge is a pioneer in studying how RNA navigates to its target sites and determines how cells develop and what characteristics they assume.

Tiedge is starting a company to develop a new diagnostic tool for breast cancer based on an unexpected finding - that a specific RNA molecule is manufactured in cancerous cells in the breast. Because this molecule is absent in normal breast tissue, it provides a potential target for uncovering breast cancer early, based on gene expression.

Tiedge's molecular test is expected to complement conventional detection methods such as mammography.

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Dr. Randall Barbour
Dr. John Chapin
Dr. Josef Michl and D. Matthew R. Pincus
Dr. M.A.Q Saddiqui
Dr. Henri Tiedge