Abstract: Cervical cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related death for women worldwide; 85% of deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), despite the fact that well-established interventions exist. This disparity persists primarily due to limited access to expensive diagnostics and few patients returning for treatment of pre-invasive disease. In this talk, Dr. Jenna Mueller will describe a combination of innovations that are at different stages in the translational pipeline to transform the management of cervical pre-cancer in LMICs. These innovations include the Pocket colposcope, a portable device to screen women for cervical pre-cancer at the primary care setting, and gel ethanol ablation, an accessible treatment that involves injecting ethanol into a lesion to cause necrosis.

Bio: Dr. Jenna Mueller is currently a Postdoctoral Associate in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Duke University, working with Drs. Nimmi Ramanujam and David Katz. Her BS is in Bioengineering (minor in Global Health Technologies) from Rice University, and both her MS and PhD in Biomedical Engineering are from Duke University. She is currently working on developing translational low-cost optical and therapeutic technologies to improve the management of cancer in the United States and in low and middle-income countries. She is integrating a diverse set of methods and perspectives, including point-of-care biomedical devices for rural/global health, multiple optical imaging methods, image processing, ablative therapies, and small and large animal models for device performance evaluations. She and her team have developed a “pocket colposcope” to screen women for cervical pre-cancer at the primary care setting and the “ReadyView laparoscope” – a low-cost, reusable device for abdominal surgeries in low- and middle-income countries.

BME Faculty Host: Jacqueline Linnes

Coffee and juice will be provided at West Lafayette.