Global oncology at Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth
Dozens of students throughout Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth are involved in developing innovative solutions to global health problems in low and middle-income countries (LMICs).
Ethan LaRochelle is a PhD candidate supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program and advised by Thayer professor Brian Pogue at Thayer's Center for Imaging Medicine located adjacent to Dartmouth Cancer Center at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire.
Over several years, Ethan has maintained an active research portfolio in Honduras involving the development of instrumentation and methods to use sunlight as a light source for photodynamic therapy for the treatment of non-melanoma skin cancers and pre-cancers. In support of studies to improve screening for cervical cancer, he sourced and combined a microscope and camera as part of an alternative approach to cytopathology for Pap smear analysis. His construction of a system using fluorescence to quantify, by body part, the splatter of agricultural chemicals on the clothes and skin of farmers was an essential part of our educational intervention for agricultural workers.
Ethan's development of a secure cloud-based data management system for our research projects have been robust and successful, providing access to de-identified data for collaborators in Honduras and at the Cancer Center.
Related publications
Atkinson AA, Studwell CM, Bejarano SA, Zapata Castella AM, Plata Espinal JA, Deharvengt SJ, LaRochelle EPM, Kennedy LS, Tsongalis GJ. Rural Distribution of Human Papilloma Virus in Low and Middle-Income Countries. Journal Experimental and Molecular Pathology (2018).
Atkinson AA, Studwell CM, Bejarano SA, Zapata Castella AM, Plata Espinal JA, Deharvengt SJ, LaRochelle EPM, Kennedy LS, Tsongalis GJ. Rural Distribution of Human Papilloma Virus in Low and Middle-Income Countries. Journal Experimental and Molecular Pathology (2018).
Turner SA, Deharvengt SJ, Lyons KD, Plata Espinal JA, LaRochelle EPM, Bejarano SA, Kennedy LS, Tsongalis GJ, Implementation of Multi-Color Melt Curve Analysis for hrHPV Detection in LMICs: A Pilot Study for Expanded Cervical Cancer Screening in Honduras. Journal of Global Oncology (2017).
Turner SA, Deharvengt SJ, Plata JA, LaRochelle EP, Bejarano SA, Kennedy LS, Tsongalis GJ, Evaluation of Methods for Point-of-Care Testing for High-Risk HPV Screening in Low Resource Countries, Journal of Molecular Diagnostics (2016).
Flynn TG, Dunaway CM, LaRochelle EPM, Zuniga JA, Barahona Campos R, Reyes García S, Cervinski MA, Spaller MR, Romano ME, Kennedy LS, Bejarano SA, Lyons KD, Tsongalis GJ, Huyck KL, Reducing dermal exposure to agrochemical carcinogens using a fluorescent dye-based intervention among subsistence farmers in rural Honduras, World Cancer Congress / UICC, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (2018).
Kennedy LS, LaRochelle EPM, Bejarano SA, Tsongalis GJ, An organized approach to multi-organ screening in rural Honduras, World Cancer Congress / UICC, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (2018).
Turner SA, Studwell C, Deharvengt SJ, Lyons KD, Plata JA, LaRochelle EPM, Zapata AM, Kennedy LS, Tsongalis GJ, Bejarano SA, High-risk HPV genotypes identified in Northern Honduras, World Cancer Congress / UICC, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (2018).