Dr Achilefu a Biafran-born radiologists breaks scientific history

Samuel Achilefu receiving his award at the Eric P. Newman Education Center. Photo: Robert Boston.This month, the goggles have been used on humans for the first time by surgeons at the Washington University School of Medicine.

A Biafran-born scientist, Samuel Achilefu, has won the prestigious St. Louis Award for 2014 for creating cancer-visualizing goggles. The award is given to a resident of the St. Louis area whose achievements reflect positively on the community.

Many Biafran scientists and inventors living in Nigeria have been suppressed by successive Nigerian governments who frustrate their efforts with policies that deny them necessary funds and recognition. The case of Damian Anyanwu of the Radio Mbaise fame is a typical example. Anyanwu invented the first indigenous radio with wide reach, whose components were made from locally sourced herbs.

Dr. Achilefu, is Professor of Radiology, Biomedical Engineering, Biochemistry, and Molecular Biophysics, as well as the Director of Optical Radiology Lab (ORL) at Washington University in St. Louis. The ORL uses a multidisciplinary approach to address important biomedical problems and provide interdisciplinary training to students and postdoctoral fellows.

Achilefu, developed the imaging technology in cancer diagnosis into a wearable night vision-like goggles so surgeons could see the cancer cells while operating.

It was an inscription his father left on the wall of their home when Dr Samuel Achilefu was only 5 years-old that spurred him to achieve great heights: “When wealth is lost, nothing is lost. But when name is lost, everything is lost".

According to Achilefu, this meant to him that “…one should be above reproach, that a good name trumps ill-gotten wealth. It set a moral standard that we should follow in life.”

One can understand how this maxim led to him being the brains behind a device that could help transform tens of thousands of cancer sufferers around the globe, into cancer survivors.

According to Washington University in St. Louis, Achilefu’s ‘cancer goggles’ are designed to make it easier for surgeons to distinguish malignant cells from healthy cells, helping to ensure that no stray tumour cells are left behind during surgery to remove a cancerous tumour. The glasses could reduce the need for additional surgical procedures and the subsequent stress on patients, as well as time and expense. The system uses custom video technology, a head-mounted display and a targeted molecular display that attaches itself to cancer cells, giving them a ‘glow’ when viewed through the eye gear.

“They basically have to operate in the dark. I thought, what if we create something that let’s you see things that aren’t available to the ordinary human eye,” Bloomberg Businessweek quoted Dr. Achilefu, 52, as saying.

“A limitation of surgery is that it’s not always clear to the naked eye the distinction between normal tissue and cancerous tissue,” Ryan Fields, MD, an assistant professor of surgery who has used the goggles with melanoma patients at Siteman Cancer Center, said last year. “With the glasses developed by Dr. Achilefu, we can better identify the tissue that must be removed.”

Achilefu was quoted as saying: “Our efforts start with two words: ‘What if?’. These words may sound simple, but they embody the belief that each person has the potential to make a difference, if only he or she can take the time to understand the problem.”

Dr. Achilefu won a scholarship from the French government to study at the University of Nancy, according to St. Louis Post-Dispatch, a regional newspaper in St. Louis, U.S., and is the 87th person to receive the annual award since it was established in 1931.

Married with two young children, Dr. Achilefu moved to St. Louis after he was hired by Mallinckrodt to start a new research department.

Watch video of Dr Achilefu's goggles

“Our efforts start with two words: ‘What if?'” Dr. Achilefu said during his acceptance speech.

According to Bloomberg, the researchers’ technology requires two steps: First, surgeons inject a tiny quantity of an infrared fluorescent marker into the patient’s bloodstream. The peptides contained in the marker enables it to locate cancer cells and buries itself inside.

After the tracer flows through a patient’s body and clears from non-cancerous tissue – which lasts about four hours – the operation would begin. Wearing the goggle, the doctor can inspect tumours under an infra red light that reacts with the dye, causing cancer cells to glow from within.

Dr Achilefu a Biafran-born radiologists breaks scientific history with the development of cancer-seeing goggles

Four patients suffering from breast cancer and over two dozen patients with melanoma or liver cancer have been operated on using the goggles since they were developed.

“The goggles function fantastically,” says Ryan Fields, a surgical oncologist who is collaborating with Dr. Achilefu to improve on the technology.

“They allow us to see the cells in real time, which is critical. Because the marker has not yet been FDA-approved, doctors are currently using a different, somewhat inferior marker that also reacts with infrared light.”

Julie Margenthaler, a breast cancer surgeon, says tens of thousands of women who had had breast cancer lumpectomies go back for second operations every year because of the inability to see the microscopic extent of the tumours.

“Imagine what it would mean if these glasses eliminated the need for follow-up surgery and the associated pain, inconvenience and anxiety.”

Dr. Achilefu and his team began work in 2012 after they received $2.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Before then, they had been working on a lean budget provided by the Department of Defence’s Breast Cancer Research Program.

After it was developed, the team spent years testing the technology on mice, rats, and rabbits to confirm the efficacy of the goggles.

“Nobody would believe us until we showed that the goggles work,” Dr. Achilefu says.

The Food and Drug Administration are still reviewing the goggles and a related dye Dr. Achilefu and his co-researchers developed, according to Washington University in St. Louis, a St. Louis based journal.

Dr. Achilefu says he intends to keep Washington University as the primary centre for clinical trials to evaluate the technology in patients.

“Making a difference in society should be the goal of everybody,” Dr. Achilefu

Achilefu's Background

After receiving a PhD in molecular physical and materials chemistry at the University of Nancy, France, where he attended on a French government scholarship, and postdoctoral training in oxygen transport mechanisms, Achilefu moved to St. Louis, US in 1993 to join the nascent Discovery Research Department at Mallinckrodt Medical Inc. Currently, he serves as a Washington University School of Medicine Professor of Medicine.

Achilefu's areas of interest include molecular optical imaging of tumors and angiogenesis as well as the design and development of new molecular probes and nanomaterials for imaging the expression of aberrant genes, proteins, and other pathophysiologic processes. Specific delivery of imaging agents and drugs to target cell organelles or tissue is another area of interest. In addition, the research program involves the biological evaluation of the new materials to assess ligand trafficking in cells, cytotoxicity, cell proliferation, subcellular distribution, enzyme kinetics, and activation of specific molecular pathways in cells. Small animal molecular imaging of pathologic tissues with state-of-the-art optical imaging systems provides preclinical data before human studies. 

ORL is also interested in developing tissue-specific multi-modal imaging molecules that harness the strengths of optical with other imaging methods such as MRI and PET. Instrument development is a significant part of our research. The lab has a multidisciplinary team of investigators with expertise in a wide range of fields, including chemistry, molecular and cell biology, biochemistry, physics, engineering, veterinary medicine, pathology, and immunology. Collaboration with other labs and institutions is highly encouraged. 

Dr. Achilefu has published more than 150 scientific papers and received more than 50 US patents as an inventor. He is a Fellow of the SPIE.