Tech That Prevents Chemotherapy-Induced Nerve Damage

Peripheral neuropathy nerve injury—which can also stem from diabetes, vitamin deficiencies, and different causes—impacts largely the guidelines of the affected person’s arms and ft. Signs vary from persistent tingling to excruciating ache. Presently there aren’t any authorized preventative measures for the situation; most cancers sufferers attempt to handle it with painkillers or, in extreme circumstances, lowering or stopping their chemotherapy, Bandla says.

Bandla is the scientific innovation supervisor at Paxman Coolers, a medical tools producer headquartered in Huddersfield, England. She is growing a wearable system that cools an individual’s limbs. Known as the Paxman limb cryocompression system (PLCS), it’s designed to assist forestall nerve injury from sure forms of intravenous chemotherapy medicine. The chilly temperature slows blood stream to the world, permitting much less of the injected treatment to achieve the nerves there.

Bandla, who is predicated in Singapore, can also be a principal investigator on the N.1 Institute for Health, the National University of Singapore (NUS), and on the National University Cancer Institute of Singapore.

An energetic IEEE volunteer, she follows ikigai in her work with the group, she says, and he or she encourages different young professionals to do the identical. She has overseen the launch of a number of profession growth and mentorship applications for IEEE Women in Engineering Singapore, IEEE Region 10 Women in Engineering, and IEEE Region 10 Young Professionals.

“Being an IEEE member,” she says, “has helped me nurture my function in rallying my efforts towards creating significant affect.”

For “her management in patient-centric well being expertise innovation and provoking IEEE Young Professionals to drive significant change,” she is the recipient of this yr’s IEEE Theodore W. Hissey Outstanding Young Professional Award. The award is sponsored by the IEEE Photonics and IEEE Power & Energy societies, in addition to IEEE Younger Professionals.

“This recognition fuels me to proceed the work IEEE is doing globally to make the world a greater place,” she says.

Engineering is a superpower

Bandla had a troublesome time deciding whether or not to pursue medication or engineering as a profession, she says, however she selected the latter as a result of it’s “a superpower that may assist you create issues to make life higher.”

After incomes her bachelor’s diploma in electrical and electronics engineering in 2009 from Anna University, in Chennai, India, she joined software engineering firm Infosys in Mysuru, India, as a technical advisor. She left three years later after being accepted into the neurotechnology doctoral program at NUS in Queenstown. Neurotechnology encompasses methods of instantly participating with the human brain and nervous system, together with brain-computer interfaces, magnetic resonance imaging, and brain-wave screens.

Bandla carried out her analysis below biomedical engineer Nitish V. Thakor, who makes a speciality of growing brain-monitoring applied sciences and neuroprostheses. The IEEE Life Fellow is a professor of biomedical engineering at Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore. He is also director of the Singapore Institute for Neurotechnology, SINAPSE, a collaboration amongst six analysis universities together with Johns Hopkins, NUS, and the University of Patras, in Greece.

Underneath Thakor’s tutelage, Bandla started her work in growing the expertise she is concerned with right now.

Utilizing expertise to handle nerve injury

In 2012 Bandla and different researchers from Thakor’s lab met with neurologist Einar Wilder Smith and oncologist Raghav Sundar from National University Hospital in Kent Ridge, Singapore, to discover how the expertise may assist most cancers sufferers with peripheral neuropathy.

Throughout chemotherapy, sufferers are injected with an individualized drug combination that kills fast-dividing cells or prevents them from multiplying by damaging the cells’ DNA. However the combination can also assault wholesome cells and injury nervous-system constructions, inflicting ache and sensitivity within the affected person’s arms and ft, as defined in an article published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences.

Within the assembly, the crew discovered a few scalp-cooling expertise that helps forestall a unique aspect impact: hair loss. A particular cap is positioned on the affected person’s head to chill the scalp.

Impressed by that chilly cap, the crew got down to develop comparable expertise for the arms and ft. However first, in 2014, the SINAPSE lab carried out a scientific trial with Nationwide College Hospital to see if cooling the limbs would assist sufferers with peripheral neuropathy. Present localized cryotherapy machines used for sports activities remedy—which flow into ice-cooled liquid to chill an space on the physique, had been examined on 15 chemotherapy sufferers on the hospital. The crew discovered that sufferers couldn’t comfortably tolerate temperatures beneath 22 °C throughout the three-hour therapy, Bandla says.

“Being an IEEE member has helped me nurture my function in rallying my efforts towards creating significant affect.”

She recommended conducting one other scientific trial, this time testing cryocompression instruments somewhat than cryotherapy ones. Cryocompression is used for sports activities therapy and rehab. It combines cooling and compression—which helps cut back swelling. Within the second trial, the crew discovered that sufferers may tolerate temperatures as little as 11 °C for 3 hours, Bandla says.

The second trial led to 2017. Bandla earned her Ph.D. that yr however continued to work on the challenge as a SINAPSE analysis fellow.

In 2018 the crew members started one other scientific research, testing if they may safely cool a affected person’s scalp and limbs concurrently to forestall a number of unwanted effects without delay.

All through the five-year trial interval, Bandla collected information to grasp the easiest way to ship cooling remedy that was protected, comfy, and efficient. The suggestions she obtained from sufferers, caregivers, and the medical employees demonstrated a transparent want for a tool to make use of within the chemotherapy suite.

After the pilot trials led to 2019, the crew started designing a tool alongside Richard Paxman and his crew at Paxman Coolers, who leveraged their experience in cryotherapy for side-effect administration.

The transportable PLCS connects to 4 insulated wraps, every containing a bladder stuffed with coolant. The wraps cowl a affected person’s forearms, arms, shins, and ft and embody velcro flaps that may be adjusted for a greater match. The PLCS circulates the coolant by the wraps and powers the compression. It additionally retains the coolant temperature at 11 °C.

Throughout each chemotherapy cycle, half-hour earlier than the treatment is run, the wraps are positioned on the affected person’s forearms and shins to start the cooling course of. After the session ends, the system is used on the affected person for 30 extra minutes, Bandla says.

The crew was granted two U.S. patents for the PLCS.

In 2022 Bandla joined Paxman as a analysis and growth supervisor, and he or she was promoted to scientific innovation supervisor two years later.

The affect her work has had retains her motivated to proceed, she says.

The PLCS is being examined in a large-scale scientific trial in 25 U.S. hospitals in collaboration with the National Cancer Institute.

Two years in the past Bandla attended a social innovation camp for college college students in India.Aishwarya Bandla

Beginning her IEEE volunteer journey

Thakor launched Bandla to IEEE. An energetic member of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, he encourages his college students to take part in its conferences and to publish papers in its journals.

Bandla says volunteering with IEEE was a no brainer for her. Her volunteerism started in 2012 with IEEE Women in Engineering Singapore. In 2019 she grew to become its chair and launched the WIE Singapore Networking Evening to assist construct camaraderie between the IEEE Singapore Section and technologists in business, academia, and authorities. The annual occasion consists of panel discussions.

In 2021 Bandla joined the IEEE Area 10 Women in Engineering committee because the technical and Younger Professionals lead. There she helped launch MentorHer, an eight-week program through which specialists assist their mentees design and implement a professional development plan. Bandla created this system’s framework.

“After the pilot program was accomplished in 2021, we obtained good suggestions from members,” she says. “Many individuals stated they interacted with folks they wouldn’t usually work with and loved the expertise.”

In 2020 Bandla started collaborating in digital occasions and conferences held by Area 10’s Younger Professionals group as a speaker and panel moderator. Final yr she grew to become the chair.

Guiding younger professionals

Volunteering for the YP group is particular to her, she says, as a result of she has been capable of “construct a group and assist different younger professionals turn into well-rounded leaders and decision-makers.”

She helped develop the Career and Leadership Aid Program (CLAP) on the Area 10 Students, Young Professionals,Women in Engineering,Life Members Congress held in August in Tokyo.

She launched the idea of ikigai to young professionals by centering the occasion round it. The congress included what she calls a “human library” session. Ten IEEE members from completely different engineering fields had been positioned across the assembly room, and attendees had an hour to find out about every of the “human books.”

The group obtained constructive suggestions, with members saying they loved the give attention to skilled and management growth. They stated they appreciated how extraordinary the occasion was, specifically the “human library” session.

Primarily based on the success of the CLAP occasion, the crew is constructing an IEEE Hive. The immersive skilled growth program is out there for college kids and early profession professionals at technical conferences and congresses world wide.

The flexibility to make an affect, construct a group, and join with folks resonates together with her, Bandla says.

“Volunteering with IEEE offers me a lot vitality!” she says.