2019 Undergraduate Summer Research Program Participant

Home Department: undeclared
Mentor: Richard Zare, Chemistry

During surgery for cancers such as renal cell carcinoma (RCC) in the kidney, surgeons often have difficulty determining whether all cancerous tissue has been removed at the margin of the resection. During the summer, Rohan will evaluate the feasibility of using desorption electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (DESI-MSI), a technique which provides information on the chemical composition of a sample, to discriminate between RCC-affected kidney tissue and healthy kidney tissue. He plans to develop a statistical model that can classify tissue as healthy or pathological based on a DESI-MSI scan of the sample. If accurate, the model has the potential to assist in surgical decision-making by informing the surgeon whether the entire tumor has been removed.