Solid State Photon Emission Probe for Application with Photodynamic Therapy

Quantum Devices, Inc.

Barneveld, WI 
 

Tiny pinhead-size Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) developed for NASA Space Shuttle plant growth experiments

• Obtained Food and Drug Administration approval to use the LED probe in the removal of children’s brain tumors on a trial basis
• Further research combining LEDs and new promising drugs is showing the possibilities of deeper tumor penetration with the probe, faster reaction times, and shortened patient sensitivities to sunlight
• Received letter of thanks from both the parents and 11-year old patient for which Photodynamic Therapy (PDT) was used to treat a brain tumor.  To date, this has been the third child who has gone from a no-hope scenario, to back to school, thanks to the LED project

• Potential commercial applications would include PDT for primary brain tumors, as well as for other cancer oncologies, such as cancer of the liver, rectum, and esophagus
• NASA News Release 97-260.  Released as part of campaign including live shots, video file mailings, mass faxing, and individual mailings which resulted in a total of 1,169 contacts being made
• Quantum Devices, Inc. is convinced from the results of their preliminary  market research that an LED-based light source would have a great marketing advantage over the cost intensive, less reliable laser sources

• Developed the LEDs as a light source for a chamber used by NASA to conduct plant research in space
• LEDs as a low-energy light source were used on NASA’s second United States Microgravity Laboratory Spacelab mission in October 1995, as part of the Astroculture Plant Growth Facility
• After the FDA clinical trials, anticipating full approval of what soon could be the operating technique of the future

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