Why can humanity land on an asteroid—but still not screen for ovarian cancer?
MIT engineer Angela Belcher shares how her team is combining hyperspectral imaging, artificial intelligence, and advanced biomedical engineering to tackle one of medicine's greatest unmet challenges: the early detection of ovarian cancer.
After discovering that most ovarian cancers actually begin in the fallopian tubes—not the ovaries—Belcher's team developed a groundbreaking imaging system capable of scanning entire fallopian tubes for tiny precancerous lesions. By building the world's largest optical database of fallopian tube tissue and applying AI-powered analysis, they hope to create the first effective screening test for ovarian cancer.
This inspiring talk explores the future of cancer detection, personalized medicine, and how engineering and AI can save lives by finding disease years before symptoms appear. Professor Angela Belcher is the James Mason Crafts Professor of Biological Engineering, Materials Science and the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT. She is a biological and materials engineer with expertise in the fields of biomaterials, biomolecular materials, organic-inorganic interfaces and solid-state chemistry and devices. Her primary research focus is evolving new materials for energy, electronics, the environment, and medicine. She received her B.S. in Creative Studies from The University of California, Santa Barbara. She earned a Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry at UCSB in 1997. Following her postdoctoral research in electrical engineering at UCSB, she joined the faculty at The University of Texas at Austin in the Department of Chemistry. She joined the faculty at MIT in 2002. In July 2019, she took over as the head of the Biological Engineering Department at MIT until 2023. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx
