CIHR Project Grant Awarded to Dr. Paula Foster and Dr. Armen Parsyan
Dr. Parsyan is sole co-applicant on a new 2024 CIHR Project Grant awarded to one of our important collaborators, Dr. Paula Foster. The grant, entitled "Developing Magnetic Particle Imaging (MPI) Lymphography" provides $677,025 over 5 years and aims to support important research regarding the imaging of sentinel lymph nodes, which is critical in detecting the presence of breast cancer cells and informing clinician treatment plans. Drs Foster and Parsyan describe the research this way:
"...We are developing a new imaging method called Magnetic Particle Imaging (MPI). MPI detects iron and the amount of iron can be measured directly from images. We propose to inject iron particles to map the sentinel lymph nodes. These types of iron particles are safe and already used in humans. Nodes with and without cancer will have different amounts of iron and we predict that MPI can be used to identify cancerous nodes. This could eliminate the need for a biopsy of the lymph node basins, which is associated with several unwanted side effects. This will be called MPI lymphography.... We have Canada's only preclinical MPI system and we have a close collaborative relationship with the company that builds the MPI system and produces the iron nanoparticles, so we are perfectly positioned to carry out this important research."
