My BRAVO! Summer in Cambridge: Developing Techniques for Digital Pathology and Drinking Afternoon Tea
I am incredibly grateful to have been selected for the BRAVO! Program this past summer, through which I conducted research at the Department of Physics Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge in England.
At the University of Cambridge, I developed an image analysis framework under the supervision of Prof. Sarah Bohndiek and Dr. Stephen Mead in the VISIONLab to identify spatial biomarkers that can best differentiate between low- and high-risk disease states of esophageal cancer and supplement histopathology for early esophageal cancer detection. This technique is termed digital pathology and could eventually alleviate the need for staining, reduce the workload for histopathologists, and be integrated into endoscopes to identify cancerous lesions in real-time during diagnostic procedures.
This image analysis framework was applied to microscopic images of resected biopsy samples obtained in suspected cancer patients, and my goal was to develop a method to detect whether esophageal cancer could be identified in the sample and how advanced it might be for comparison to the diagnosis obtained by trained pathologists.
The Royal Ballet and Opera House in London
I used texture feature analysis, a computationally efficient method for analyzing the pixel variations in digitized versions of the microscopic images, to accurately determine the importance of each feature in distinguishing between disease states. The final output of the classification method was a predicted disease state for each test image. I hope to present my results at an upcoming conference early next year.
Outside of the lab, I enjoyed the city of Cambridge and its local surroundings, investigating the food, lifestyle and culture. I visited the many colleges and enjoyed events such as the King’s Men’s Choir on the River Cam and Shakespeare plays in various college gardens. I also visited the iconic King’s College Chapel and visited Cambridge’s many museums. I had the opportunity to take the train into London one weekend day where I went to a Royal Ballet performance of La Fille mal gardée, visited a few museums, and took in some of the sights while enjoying fish and chips!
I will cherish the friendships I made this summer. The lab group and the community of Cambridge was so inviting and welcoming, and my research experience began with an offsite lab retreat. Enjoying a cup of tea with my lab friends in the afternoons was so enjoyable and gave us a chance to socialize throughout the workday. Getting to work with researchers from diverse backgrounds and exploring the academic setting of Cambridge was incredibly fulfilling and enlightening.
I will always remember gaining a new perspective from this amazing opportunity and enjoying the British culture, food and amazing history. I am incredibly grateful to the BRAVO! Program for making this possible!