Petra Wilder-Smith

Last updated
Petra Wilder-Smith
Alma mater University of London, University of Bern, Aachen University
Scientific career
Institutions Beckman Laser Institute; University of California, Irvine
Thesis "Optical Diagnostics in the Oral Cavity" [1]

Petra Elfrida Erna Beate Wilder-Smith[ citation needed ] is a professor and director of dentistry at the Beckman Laser Institute at the University of California, Irvine, and a fellow of the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of California, Irvine. She is a visiting professor at Aachen University (Germany); and a visiting lecturer at Loma Linda University. Wilder-Smith specializes in the use of light and optics in tracking and treating oral cancer. She has developed innovative [2] noninvasive laser technology used to examine and treat mouth lesions. [3]

Contents

Career

Wilder-Smith attended Guy's Hospital at the University of London (United Kingdom), receiving her dental degree with honors and distinction in July, 1983. [4] Also in 1983, she was awarded the Diplomate of the Royal College of Surgeons of Great Britain. [2] [5] [6] In 1985, Wilder-Smith received a doctorate from the University of Bern (Switzerland) for her work in restorative dentistry. [7]

Wilder-Smith served as junior faculty at Guy's Hospital in the department of oral medicine and at Heidelberg University in Germany, gaining certification in the specialty of oral medicine from Heidelberg in 1986. [7] She was awarded the inaugural Research Prize for Endodontology by the European Society of Endodontology in 1987 [8] for her innovative work applying Laser Doppler flowmetry techniques to oral research. [4] While at Heidelberg, she received the university's Best Clinician Award in 1988, and Best Lecturer Award and Stauffenberg Award for innovative research in 1989. [6] In 1999, Wilder-Smith was awarded a doctorate in biomedical optics from Aachen University. [7]

In 1991, Wilder-Smith joined the Beckman Laser Institute at the University of California, Irvine as assistant director of the Dental Program. She became associate director of the Dental Program and Adjunct Assistant Professor as of 1993, Director of Dental Program and Adjunct Assistant Professor as of 1995, Director of the Dental Program and Associate Professor as of 1998, and Director of the Dental Program and Professor as of 2008. [9]

Research

Wilder-Smith's research focuses on noninvasive optical techniques such as fluorescence and optical coherence tomography and their use in the diagnosis of oral cancer. She is particularly concerned with developing technologies for the early detection of precancerous and cancerous tissues in the mouth. [10] She has collaborated with researchers at the City of Hope, UCLA, the University of Pennsylvania and elsewhere, publishing more than 100 publications in over 20 years. [1] She has received funding from the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Defense, and others. [2]

Dr. Petra Wilder-Smith is working with Dr. Zhongping Chen at the University of California, Irvine, Dr Rongguang Liang at the University of Arizona's College of Optical Sciences, and Dr. M. A. Kuriakose at the Mazumdar-Shaw Cancer Center in Bangalore, India to develop an inexpensive portable device for detection of oral cancer, [11] which accounts for 35% of cancer deaths among Indian men. [3] The solar-powered device, slightly larger than a shoebox, uses mobile phone technology to send laser images of oral lesions to specialists for assessment. [3] Future laser devices may snap onto smartphones. [2] By reaching patients who have little access to oral care, and diagnosing cancer in its extremely early stages, the potential for early intervention and more successful treatment outcomes can be increased. [12]

The instrument sends a beam of light through oral tissue to a depth of 2 mm. This is compared to a reference beam, and an image of the tissue surface and subsurface is constructed. The information gained about the microarchitecture of the tissue is similar to that gained from histological slides in a biopsy, without invasion of the tissue and resulting pain. [13] 90% diagnostic sensitivity and 85% specificity have been reported. The system's diagnostic algorithm triages patients into three categories: no intervention required, monitor on a three- or six-month basis, and immediately refer to a specialist. [13]

Wilder-Smith serves on advisory boards of the American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery, the Diagnostic Sciences Group of the International Association for Dental Research and the Prevent Cancer Foundation. She serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Photomedicine and Laser Surgery, the Journal of Biomedical Optics and the journal Lasers in Surgery and Medicine. [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Photonics</span> Technical applications of optics

Photonics is a branch of optics that involves the application of generation, detection, and manipulation of light in form of photons through emission, transmission, modulation, signal processing, switching, amplification, and sensing. Photonics is closely related to quantum electronics, where quantum electronics deals with the theoretical part of it while photonics deal with its engineering applications. Though covering all light's technical applications over the whole spectrum, most photonic applications are in the range of visible and near-infrared light. The term photonics developed as an outgrowth of the first practical semiconductor light emitters invented in the early 1960s and optical fibers developed in the 1970s.

The term biophotonics denotes a combination of biology and photonics, with photonics being the science and technology of generation, manipulation, and detection of photons, quantum units of light. Photonics is related to electronics and photons. Photons play a central role in information technologies, such as fiber optics, the way electrons do in electronics.

Medical optical imaging is the use of light as an investigational imaging technique for medical applications. Examples include optical microscopy, spectroscopy, endoscopy, scanning laser ophthalmoscopy, laser Doppler imaging, and optical coherence tomography. Because light is an electromagnetic wave, similar phenomena occur in X-rays, microwaves, and radio waves.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Axicon</span> Special lens with a conical surface

An axicon is a specialized type of lens which has a conical surface. An axicon transforms a laser beam into a ring shaped distribution. They can be convex or concave and be made of any optical material. The combination with other axicons or lenses allows a wide variety of beam patterns to be generated. It can be used to turn a Gaussian beam into a non-diffractive Bessel-like beam. Axicons were first proposed in 1954 by John McLeod.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bruce J. Tromberg</span> American chemist

Bruce J. Tromberg is an American photochemist and a leading researcher in the field of biophotonics. He is the director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) within the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Before joining NIH, he was Professor of Biomedical Engineering at The Henry Samueli School of Engineering and of Surgery at the School of Medicine, University of California, Irvine. He was the principal investigator of the Laser Microbeam and Medical Program (LAMMP), and the Director of the Beckman Laser Institute and Medical Clinic at Irvine. He was a co-leader of the Onco-imaging and Biotechnology Program of the NCI Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center at Irvine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indocyanine green</span> Chemical compound

Indocyanine green (ICG) is a cyanine dye used in medical diagnostics. It is used for determining cardiac output, hepatic function, liver and gastric blood flow, and for ophthalmic and cerebral angiography. It has a peak spectral absorption at about 800 nm. These infrared frequencies penetrate retinal layers, allowing ICG angiography to image deeper patterns of circulation than fluorescein angiography. ICG binds tightly to plasma proteins and becomes confined to the vascular system. ICG has a half-life of 150 to 180 seconds and is removed from circulation exclusively by the liver to bile.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laser medicine</span>

Laser medicine consists in the use of lasers in medical diagnosis, treatments, or therapies, such as laser photodynamic therapy, photorejuvenation, and laser surgery.

Robert Alfano is an Italian-American experimental physicist. He is a Distinguished Professor of Science and Engineering at the City College and Graduate School of New York of the City University of New York, where he is also the founding Director of the Institute for Ultrafast Spectroscopy and Lasers (1982). He is a pioneer in the fields of Biomedical Imaging and Spectroscopy, Ultrafast lasers and optics, tunable lasers, semiconductor materials and devices, optical materials, biophysics, nonlinear optics and photonics; he has also worked extensively in nanotechnology and coherent backscattering. His discovery of the white-light supercontinuum laser is at the root of optical coherence tomography, which is breaking barriers in ophthalmology, cardiology, and oral cancer detection among other applications. He initiated the field known now as Optical Biopsy

The Beckman Laser Institute is an interdisciplinary research center for the development of optical technologies and their use in biology and medicine. Located on the campus of the University of California, Irvine in Irvine, California, an independent nonprofit corporation was created in 1982, under the leadership of Michael W. Berns, and the actual facility opened on June 4, 1986. It is one of a number of institutions focused on translational research, connecting research and medical applications. Researchers at the institute have developed laser techniques for the manipulation of structures within a living cell, and applied them medically in treatment of skin conditions, stroke, and cancer, among others.

Michael W. Berns was an American biologist who was a professor of surgery and cell biology at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), and an adjunct professor of bioengineering at the University of California, San Diego. Berns was a founder of the first Laser Microbeam Program (LAMP), the Beckman Laser Institute, the UCI Center for Biomedical Engineering, and the UCI Photonics Incubator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen A. Boppart</span>

Stephen A. Boppart is a principal investigator at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he holds an Abel Bliss Professorship in engineering. He is a faculty member in the departments of electrical and computer engineering, bioengineering, and internal medicine. His research focus is biophotonics, where he has pioneered new optical imaging technologies in the fields of optical coherence tomography, multi-photon microscopy, and computational imaging.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrea Armani</span> American chemical engineer

Andrea Martin Armani is the Ray Irani Chair in Engineering and Materials Science and Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. She was awarded the 2010 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from Barack Obama and is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rüdiger Emshoff</span> German oral and maxillofacial surgeon and associate professor

Rüdiger Emshoff is a German oral and maxillofacial surgeon and associate professor at the Medical University of Innsbruck, where he is head of the Orofacial Pain and Temporomandibular Disorder Unit. Emshoff is known for his work in the field of chronic orofacial pain management with a focus on the development of non-invasive and minimally-invasive methods in the diagnosis and treatment of temporomandibular joint dysfunction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anita Mahadevan-Jansen</span> Biomedical engineer

Anita Mahadevan-Jansen is a Professor of Biomedical Engineering and holds the Orrin H. Ingram Chair in Biomedical Engineering at Vanderbilt University. Her research considers the development of optical techniques for clinical diagnosis and surgical guidance, particularly using Raman and fluorescence spectroscopy. She serves on the Board of Directors of SPIE, and is a Fellow of SPIE, The Optical Society, Society for Applied Spectroscopy, and the American Society for Lasers in Medicine and Surgery. She has been elected to serve as the 2020 Vice President of SPIE. With her election, Mahadevan-Jansen joins the SPIE presidential chain and will serve as President-Elect in 2021 and Society's President in 2022.

Laura Marcu is an American scientist and a professor of biomedical engineering and neurological surgery at the University of California, Davis. She is also a Fellow of numerous professional societies: the Biomedical Engineering Society, SPIE, The Optical Society and the National Academy of Inventors.

Nimmi Ramanujam is the Robert W. Carr Professor of Biomedical Engineering, and a faculty member in the Global Health Institute and the Department of Pharmacology & Cell Biology at Duke University. She is the director of the Center of Global Women's Health Technologies (GWHT) and founder of Zenalux Biomedical Inc. and Calla Health. Ramanujam has spent the last two decades developing precision diagnostics and more recently precision therapeutics for breast and cervical cancer, with a focus on addressing global health disparities. She has more than 20 patents and over 150 publications for screening, diagnostic, and surgical applications, and has raised over $30M of funding to pursue these innovations through a variety of funding mechanisms, including NIH R01s and R21s, NIH Bioengineering Partnerships, NCI Academic Industry Partnerships, NIH Small Business grants and USAID funding. As the founding director of the Center for Global Women's Health Technologies at Duke University, she has developed a consortium of over 50+ partners including international academic institutions and hospitals, non-governmental organizations, ministries of health, and commercial partners; this consortium is working to ensure that the technologies developed at the center are adopted by cancer control programs in geographically and economically diverse healthcare settings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christine P. Hendon</span> American electrical engineer and computer scientist

Christine P. Hendon is an electrical engineer and computer scientist and an associate professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Columbia University in New York City. Hendon is a pioneer in medical imaging. She develops biomedical optics technologies, using optical coherence tomography and near infrared spectroscopy systems, that enable physicians to perform guided interventional procedures and allow for structure-function dissection of human tissues and organs. Her advances in imaging technologies have led to improved diagnostic abilities and treatments for cardiac arrhythmias as well as breast cancer and preterm birth. She has been recognized for her development of optical imaging catheters for cardiac wall imaging by Forbes 30 under 30, the MIT Technology Review’s 35 Innovators Under 35, and by President Obama with the Presidential Early Career Awards in 2017.

Katarina Svanberg is a Swedish physician who is Professor and Chief Consultant of Oncology at the Skåne University Hospital. Her research considers the use of fluorescence-based tumour imaging and photodynamic therapy. She served as President of SPIE in 2011 and was awarded the SPIE Gold Medal in 2017.

Arjun Gaurang Yodh is an American physicist. He is the James M. Skinner Professor of Science at the University of Pennsylvania and former Director of the Laboratory for Research on the Structure of Matter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Igor Meglinski</span> British Biomedical Engineer, Biophotonics and Optical Physicist

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References

  1. 1 2 "President Elect". Diagnostic Sciences Group. Retrieved 4 November 2015.[ permanent dead link ]
  2. 1 2 3 4 Vasich, Tom (August 31, 2015). "Better than biopsies". UCI News. University of California, Irvine. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 "Portable diagnostic device aimed at combating oral cancer in India". Dental Tribune International. Oct 9, 2015. Archived from the original on September 12, 2017. Retrieved November 4, 2015.
  4. 1 2 "Dental Notices: Congratulations" (PDF). Guy's Hospital Gazette. February 27, 1988.
  5. ↑ "Licentiate in Dental Surgery, (LDS)". Royal College of Surgeons. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
  6. 1 2 3 "Colloquium: Petra Wilder-Smith". The University of Arizona. College of Optical Sciences. September 11, 2014.
  7. 1 2 3 "Biographical Sketch: Petra E. Wilder-Smith" (PDF). Beckman Laser Institute and Medical Clinic. Retrieved 4 November 2015.[ permanent dead link ]
  8. ↑ "ESE Wladimir Adlivankine Research Prize Competition". European Society of Endodontology. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
  9. ↑ "Wilder-Smith CV" (PDF). Beckman Laser Institute. Retrieved 4 November 2015.[ permanent dead link ]
  10. ↑ Wilder-Smith, Petra E. "A Low-Cost Simple Oral Cancer Screening Device for Low-Resource Settings". Grantome. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
  11. ↑ "Innovative Technology for Early Detection of Oral Cancer". Beckman Laser Institute and Medical Clinic. September 25, 2012. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved November 2, 2015.
  12. ↑ "Dental Research Effort Aims to Stem Oral Cancer in India". Labmedica International. 23 Sep 2015. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
  13. 1 2 Domino, Donna (September 24, 2015). "Can a laser detect oral cancer?". DrBicuspid.com. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
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