Earlier in August, the Biden administration announced that the Seattle-based University of Washington would receive $21.1 million as part of President Joe Biden's Cancer Moonshot.
The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health initiative was launched in 2016 with the goal of cutting the U.S cancer death rate in half by 2047. The University of Washington was one of three universities, alongside Tulane University in New Orleans and Rice University in Houston, awarded funding to develop new methods for visualizing individual cells on the surface of a tumor after removal to increase the precision of cancer removal procedures, according to an Aug. 13 news release.
The work of UW mechanical engineering professor Jonathan Liu, PhD, was key in receiving the award. His work focused on more complete removal of cancer tumors during the initial surgery.
"We need to develop and validate our methods within realistic surgical environments in collaboration with a team of clinicians at various sites working on different forms of cancer," Dr. Liu said in the release. "I'm excited about the potential to develop and refine a technology to the point where it can potentially be commercialized and have a real-world impact for surgeons and patients with cancer."