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Patented photoacoustic invention capable of fast, inexpensive, early detection of melanoma
Feb 28, 2012
The subject of this article, Mizzou Advantage Researcher John Viator, will present on his cancer research in our Pizza and Projects series March 8.
From BOND LSC News
Research at MU has yielded a new tool to aid the fight against metastatic melanoma and that tool is now poised for commercial development. Bond Life Sciences Center investigator John Viator has invented a device that can detect single melanoma cells in a blood sample at a fraction of the cost of current cancer tests. He recently signed royalty and licensing agreements with the university, clearing the way for his newly formed company, Viator Technologies Inc, to take advantage of this intellectual property and go into production.
Melanoma, an aggressive cancer, is characterized by skin growths that of themselves aren’t seriously dangerous, but it can become a quick killer if cancer cells detach and enter the bloodstream, then lodge and grow elsewhere in the body. When melanoma cells metastasize in this manner, patients often live less than a year, and fewer than 20 percent live five years. More…