Tech That Prevents Chemotherapy-Induced Nerve Damage

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

Bandla is the medical innovation supervisor at Paxman Coolers, a medical gear producer headquartered in Huddersfield, England. She is creating a wearable gadget that cools an individual’s limbs. Known as the Paxman limb cryocompression system (PLCS), it’s designed to assist forestall nerve harm from sure varieties of intravenous chemotherapy medicine. The chilly temperature slows blood move to the realm, permitting much less of the injected medicine 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 she or he encourages different young professionals to do the identical. She has overseen the launch of a number of profession growth and mentorship packages 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 goal in rallying my efforts towards creating significant affect.”

For “her management in patient-centric well being expertise innovation and galvanizing 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 tough time deciding whether or not to pursue drugs or engineering as a profession, she says, however she selected the latter as a result of it’s “a superpower that may enable 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 marketing consultant. She left three years later after being accepted into the neurotechnology doctoral program at NUS in Queenstown. Neurotechnology encompasses methods of immediately participating with the human brain and nervous system, together with brain-computer interfaces, magnetic resonance imaging, and brain-wave displays.

Bandla carried out her analysis beneath biomedical engineer Nitish V. Thakor, who focuses on creating 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.

Beneath Thakor’s tutelage, Bandla started her work in creating the expertise she is concerned with at this time.

Utilizing expertise to handle nerve harm

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 might 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 harm nervous-system buildings, 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 group discovered a few scalp-cooling expertise that helps forestall a special 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 group got down to develop related expertise for the arms and ft. However first, in 2014, the SINAPSE lab carried out a medical trial with Nationwide College Hospital to see if cooling the limbs would assist sufferers with peripheral neuropathy. Current 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 group discovered that sufferers couldn’t comfortably tolerate temperatures under 22 °C in the course of the three-hour remedy, Bandla says.

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

She recommended conducting one other medical trial, this time testing cryocompression instruments reasonably 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 group discovered that sufferers might tolerate temperatures as little as 11 °C for 3 hours, Bandla says.

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

In 2018 the group members started one other medical research, testing if they might safely cool a affected person’s scalp and limbs concurrently to forestall a number of negative effects directly.

All through the five-year trial interval, Bandla collected knowledge to know one of the simplest ways to ship cooling remedy that was secure, 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 resulted in 2019, the group started designing a tool alongside Richard Paxman and his group 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 full of 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 means of the wraps and powers the compression. It additionally retains the coolant temperature at 11 °C.

Throughout each chemotherapy cycle, half-hour earlier than the medicine 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 gadget is used on the affected person for 30 extra minutes, Bandla says.

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

In 2022 Bandla joined Paxman as a analysis and growth supervisor, and she or he was promoted to medical 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 medical 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 varsity 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 turned its chair and launched the WIE Singapore Networking Evening to assist construct camaraderie between the IEEE Singapore Section and technologists in trade, academia, and authorities. The annual occasion contains 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 consultants 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 contributors,” she says. “Many individuals mentioned they interacted with folks they wouldn’t usually work with and loved the expertise.”

In 2020 Bandla started taking part in digital occasions and conferences held by Area 10’s Younger Professionals group as a speaker and panel moderator. Final yr she turned 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 change 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 study every of the “human books.”

The group obtained optimistic suggestions, with contributors saying they loved the deal with skilled and management growth. They mentioned they appreciated how extraordinary the occasion was, specifically the “human library” session.

Based mostly on the success of the CLAP occasion, the group is constructing an IEEE Hive. The immersive skilled growth program is on the market 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 power!” she says.