Bioengineering Lab Advances Cancer-Fighting Methods With $6.7M in NIH Awards

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded a University of Maryland research team a pair of grants totaling $6.7 million to develop low-cost technologies designed to expand access to cancer care in communities with limited medical resources. 

The principal investigator for both grants is Fischell Department of Bioengineering Associate Professor Jenna Mueller, who is also an affiliate fellow in the Robert E. Fischell Institute for Biomedical Devices. She leads the Global Biomedical Devices Lab, and with her team develops diagnostic and therapeutic technologies for cancer care in settings where conventional medical equipment may be too expensive, difficult to maintain or unavailable. 

The first NIH grant, worth $3.2 million over five years, will advance Mueller’s work on the KeyScope, a low-cost laparoscope designed to make minimally invasive surgery more accessible in low-resource settings. 

“I’m so excited we get to continue our work on these global health projects,” Mueller said. “This will enable more students to work on projects that are focused on global health applications.”

Mueller plans to expand the KeyScope into a suite of laparoscopes that can support different surgical procedures. Laparoscopic surgery uses a small camera and instruments inserted through small openings instead of the large incision used in open surgery. The approach can reduce postoperative complications and recovery time, but conventional laparoscopic systems can cost more than $100,000 per operating room and rely on specialized equipment and maintenance that may not be available in rural or low-resource communities.

In contrast, KeyScope’s target cost is around $2,000; unlike pricier systems that use expensive and delicate fiber optics, it uses a cheaper and more robust setup with led lighting and a digital image sensor at the tip of the device.

[A “Key” Step Toward Safer Surgeries Worldwide]

So far, the team has developed a KeyScope version that sees straight ahead. With the new funding, researchers will work with the Fischell Institute to develop a 30-degree scope, allowing surgeons to see different areas inside the abdomen. They will also add fluorescence imaging, a technique that can help surgeons visualize structures during an operation, and collaborate with Duke University researchers on laboratory and animal tests before progressing to clinical trials in Uganda in 2027.

The second grant for $3.4 million is funding a joint project with bioengineering Associate Professor Katharina Maisel’s lab to develop a topical ethanol-based gel to treat low-grade cervical dysplasia, a precancerous condition affecting cells on the surface of the cervix while sparing healthy tissue.

Low-grade cervical dysplasia is often monitored rather than immediately treated because it can resolve on its own. That approach depends on patients returning for follow-up screenings to make sure the condition does not progress. In low-resource communities, however, patients may face barriers to returning for care, which can make treatment, rather than waiting, a safer choice. But current treatments can require equipment or supplies that are difficult to access in rural settings.

The new project builds on Mueller’s earlier work with ethyl cellulose-ethanol (EC-ethanol) ablation, which is designed to destroy precancerous cells while limiting the treatment’s spread to surrounding tissue. The new formulation uses a methyl cellulose-based ethanol gel that can form quickly and adhere to wet tissue. The team will develop the gel for localized release for up to 24 hours and design an applicator and cup device to keep the treatment concentrated at the cervix. The therapy is scheduled for a clinical trial at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in 2028.