Beneath the Surface

Konopka, Christian

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/89905 Copy

Description

Title

Beneath the Surface

Author(s)

Konopka, Christian

Issue Date

2016-04

Keyword(s)

Bioengineering

Abstract

Personalized medicine is revolutionizing the medical field. This transformation in practice is allowing a physician to look at a patient, do a molecular profile, and then prescribe treatments that would most directly correct the complication, in contrast to providing a diagnosis and treatment based solely from physically apparent presentations or symptoms. In essence, a physician is looking beneath the superficial symptom presentations and anatomical markers, deeper to the molecular workings of a disease. This trend of treating each disease on a patient-by-patient molecular profile basis is especially important with cancer, where researchers and physicians are learning that the location or organ of a cancer is not nearly as crucial for providing successful treatment as understanding the molecular makeup or genetic profile of that cancer. But how does one actually see the molecular differences from on disease to another? Molecular-imaging allows a physician or researcher to visualize the expression of various molecules on the whole organism or organ scale. Specifically, my research, and the subject of this image, involves developing an imaging agent to assess levels of certain receptors in prostate cancer, whose levels could grade the aggressiveness of the cancer, and illuminate treatment options for these patients.

Type of Resource

• text
• image

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/89905

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2016 Christian Konopka

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