New imaging machine to impact cancer research
University of Windsor, cancer patients benefit from Caesars’ Concerts for Cure
Researchers at the University of Windsor unveiled a high-resolution imaging machine Thursday that they say will immediately affect eight cutting-edge cancer research programs.
The new Fluorchem-hd2 imaging system was made possible by a $15,000 donation from Caesars Windsor through its Concerts for a Cure campaign.
It can analyze DNA, RNA and protein collected from cells and tissues, which is critical to cancer research.
Susanne Tomkins, Caesars’ manager of public relations and communications, noted that since 1994, the casino has donated “over $8 million to local organizations fighting the fight against cancer.”
After formal remarks concluded in the lobby of the university’s Essex Centre of Research (CORE), Dr. Bre-anne Fifield showed Tomkins and others how the new equipment worked, displaying an image of a fragment of DNA in minutes.
Fifield and Dr. Dora Cavallo Medved are members of the Windsor Cancer Research Group and were on hand Thursday to explain the new equipment’s importance.
Fifield said it will have “immediate and lasting benefits to our cancer research programs here,” and added “this is the type of equipment that is vital for our research programs.”
Medved described it as “a major contribution” one “that will help expand and advance our biomedical research facilities and ultimately will lead to new and innovative solutions in diagnostics and treatment that will impact patients across Windsor-essex.” Medved said the imager offers “the best-in-class resolution.”
She said the previous imaging equipment the cancer research group used was housed in another building on campus and didn’t offer the same standard of resolution.
Images from the older equipment might miss proteins and RNA “that are there but we just don’t see it,” she said.
Medved said fewer than 20 years ago, researchers were actually using photographs to collect images.
“We had a darkroom to develop the film and it took hours,” she said.
These newer detailed images will allow researchers “to better understand what the role of the cell is and what’s happening inside those cells.”
Medved equated their work to that of a detective.
“We need all the pieces of evidence,” she said.
Eventually, the researchers will analyze patient samples with the imager in order to offer targeted treatment.
The equipment is multidisciplinary and will be made available to 50 health research scientists.
Dr. Chris Houser, the dean of the faculty of science, told those gathered for the unveiling that the equipment will also be available to both graduate and undergraduate students.
As Medved noted, “we are training the next generation of scientists.”