Life seems to have come to a halt due to this pandemic, however research powers through to make ground-breaking discoveries and to further educate the world.

This is particularly true for Purdue University Chemical Engineering Graduate Student, Dhushyanth Viswanath, whose research poster on “Bilirubin-Coated Radio-Luminescent Particles for Radiation-Induced Photodynamic Therapy” was selected as the winner for the Investigator category of the Kroenke’s Poster Awards at the Annual CTSI Meeting on Sept. 11, 2020.

Viswanath is advised by Dr. You-Yeon Won, Professor in the Davidson School of Chemical Engineering. In collaboration with recent ChE graduate student Vincenzo Pizzuti and the Purdue Center for Cancer Research (PCCR), Viswanath observed a 40% improvement in cancerous cell-killing with combined radiation and Photodynamic therapy (PDT) when compared to traditional radiation therapy.

“Having a more traditional Chemical Engineering background, I found the learning curve to enter translational research to be steep. This award is a meaningful indication of how much I have learned during the first two years of the PhD program”, says Viswanath.

The Indiana CTSI is a statewide collaborative institution established in 2008 that unites faculty and staff researchers at Purdue University, Indiana University, and the University of Notre Dame together in order to improve the health statewide. Every year, they hold their annual meeting to discuss future initiatives as well as host poster sessions for researchers. This year the meeting was held virtually via Zoom and Microsoft Teams, with breakout rooms utilized to simulate an in-person poster symposium.

“Despite the large number of participants, the event organizers did a great job of ensuring all posters could be presented in the allotted time slot and that the remainder of the convention could proceed as scheduled. Whilst it was not the same as having an in-person event, it was certainly a commendable substitute”, explains Viswanath when talking about the Indiana CTSI event.

As with most research, there is always more to learn and more questions to be asked. That’s why Viswanath is far from being done.

“In the near future, we plan to evaluate the performance of our treatment in more complex models than have been conducted so far. Long-term, we are hopeful this could be a unique and promising tool for the treatment of certain common cancers such as head and neck squamous cell carcinomas.”

Learn more about the Davidson School of Chemical Engineering: https://engineering.purdue.edu/ChE

Learn more about Indiana CTSI: https://indianactsi.org/about/

Source: Dhushyanth Viswanath, dviswan@purdue.edu

Written: Heidi Cervantes, hcervant@purdue.edu

Photo by Heidi Cervantes.