Duke University, USA

Breast cancer is the most common malignancy among women in the western world and the second leading cause of cancer related deaths among women in the United States. Most patients diagnosed with breast cancer will have surgery with or without radiotherapy to control local disease.

An associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Dr. Nirmala Ramanujam is working on optical technologies that will aid in the early detection and excision of breast cancer. By studying and understanding the way light moves through human tissue, she and her team are developing noninvasive optical-based tools to image and characterize human tissue as either “normal” or “cancerous.”

Dr. Ramanujam completed all of her educational studies at the University of Texas, Austin, earning a B.S. and M.S. in mechanical engineering, and a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering.