Melanoma is a malignant tumor that develops from melanocytes – pigment cells that produce melanin. In other words, it is a cancer of the skin. Diagnosis of the disease in its early stages significantly improves a patient’s chances of full healing, so several groups of scientists from different countries worked simultaneously on the devices that can make life easier for physicians and increase patients ‘ chances of recovery. Fortune smiled on the group of researchers from McMaster University in Canada. The invention of the portable detector of melanoma they awarded Dyson.
International Dyson award was established in 2004 and is awarded annually to inventors, scientists and researchers in the field of industrial design and engineering design. The winning team receives a cash prize for the implementation and promotion of their projects. Furthermore, an additional £ 10,000 gets University, where he worked or studied team. In different years the award was received projects such as the backpack for safe transport of young children in transport, rescue vest made of a special foam, increasing in size when immersed in water, a stand-alone device for irrigation of crops in arid regions and other curious inventions. In the same year, all bypassed the creators of the portable detector of skin cancer called sKan.
In order to effectively identify cancerous cells in the early stages, employees of McMaster University are embedded in its detector 16 thermistors (resistors whose resistance varies with temperature). Place on the skin, which raises the suspicion of melanoma, apply an ice pack, and then to the same area of the skin attached to the detector. The fact is that cancer cells after a sharp cooling heat up faster than the healthy cells. The device builds a heat map of after rapid cooling (“frost shock”, as the authors call it invention) and, based on these data, the conclusion about the presence or absence of melanoma.
“The detector sKan developers used available and inexpensive components. Thus it allows you to quickly and effectively identify human melanoma. Personally, I think that the team from Canada managed to create a truly useful device that can save many lives” — shared with journalists, the founder of the award James Dyson.
In addition to £ 30,000 from the Foundation of Dyson canadian inventors also received an additional $ 40,000 for his research in the framework of various exhibitions and competitions. Looking ahead, the researchers claim that are currently working on improving the technology for diagnosing skin cancer and strive to make their device even more compact and convenient to use. Currently, the scientists plan to organize a full-scale clinical trials, which ultimately will allow them to sell their device on the market and provide it to different hospitals and clinics.
The developers of the portable detector of melanoma has received the award Dyson
Sergey Grey