Innocent Chia
Citizen Journalist
Email: innochia@gmail.com
By Innocent Chia
Over the last several weeks there has been online voting for three deserving finalists of the Bright Futures Prize Competition at the renown Harvard Medical School in Massachusetts, USA. The push and appeal to vote for one of the candidates, Dr. Wilfred Ngwa (PhD) has been fascinating to watch for many reasons, the most important being the likely impact that his search for a cure for cancer could have on individual lives, families and communities across the globe.
In the waning days of his campaign to be the fourth winner of the Bright Futures Prize, we caught up with the Brigham & Women Hospital (BWH) researcher to share with us about his belief in and passion for TidTaC - the revolutionary one-two knockout punch against cancer that he and his team are working on - ; his motivation and inspiration in life; as well as thoughts on the long road to success.
(Visit www.brightfuturesprize.org now and vote for Dr. Ngwa's "Tiny Drones to Target Cancer").
Dunia Magazine: Congratulations on the nomination to the final three of the Bright Futures Prize competition. If you don't mind, can you recap for our reader the project that has qualified you to this final phase?
Dr. Wilfred Ngwa: Thank you for this opportunity to share with your readers some of what my project entails. My project is about a cure for cancer, which is a leading cause of death worldwide.
The 2014 World Health Organization (WHO) Cancer Report describes the growing global burden of cancer as alarming, a major obstacle to human development and well-being, with a rising annual economic cost of ca. US$ 1.16 trillion. In particular, the report highlights major global cancer disparities, with over 60% of 14 million new cases and 70% of 8.2 million deaths per year occurring in low and middle income countries, like those in Africa where cancer is often equated to a death sentence. About 90 percent of cancer deaths are caused by the spread of the cancer to other parts of a patient’s body, making it more difficult to treat effectively.
So, my team has developed powerful new technology called TiDTaC (Tiny Drones to Target Cancer) designed to more effectively kill cancer cells that have spread to other parts of the body with minimal collateral damage or side effects. The technology combines microscopic nanoparticles with medicine—all packed into a tiny drone the size of a grain of rice.
Currently in the clinic, similar rice-size materials are routinely implanted in patients to guide radiotherapy treatment of cancer. We want to replace this technology that is currently used with our “smart” TiDTaC technology, which can be employed at no additional inconvenience to patients. Once in place, the TiDTaC directly delivers the microscopic particles/medicine to enhance local tumor cell death during radiotherapy and act as a beacon to call in the patient’s white blood cells. The white blood cells are then trained to kill cancer cells and can patrol the entire body, fighting cancer that has spread with great effectiveness. Current results indicate this could also help prevent the cancer from ever coming back, hence would be a real cure for cancer.
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