Akshay Sood
Ohio State University, OH·Biomedical Engineering
Doctors must know how deeply a cancer has grown into the wall of an organ to choose the right treatment. For cancers in hollow, tube-shaped organs, getting that information is hard.
- Fields
Biomedical Engineering
Medicine & Clinical Research
- Topics
biopsy device
full-thickness biopsy
core needle biopsy
- Grants
- 1 known grant, last ended Oct 2026
What they work on
- Assess the translation potential of a flexible, endoscope-compatible biopsy instrument that collects full-thickness tru-cut core samples from tumors in tubular organs, through first-hand interviews across the medical device industry.
- Evaluate how full-thickness biopsies could improve T staging (depth of tumor invasion) in the TNM cancer staging system for hard-to-reach cancers of the ureter, gastrointestinal tract and airways.
- Define the clinical and economic value of the device, including adequate tissue sampling, treatment selection and healthcare costs, using the experiential customer-discovery approach of the I-Corps program.
More about the research
These organs include the ureter (the tube from kidney to bladder), the esophagus, colon, pancreatic ducts and the airways. Current biopsy tools passed through an endoscope can only grab cells from the surface. As a result, the depth of invasion, called the T stage in the tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) staging system, is often uncertain. The six most commonly diagnosed U.S. cancers arise in tubular organ systems, and roughly 25–50% of them are inaccurately staged.
Why it matters
More accurate staging of cancers in tubular organs, such as the ureter, colon, esophagus, pancreas and airways, could help doctors choose the right treatment for each patient. A full-thickness flexible biopsy tool may improve treatment accuracy and patient outcomes, while reducing wasted resources and healthcare costs linked to misstaging.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Daniel Engebretson
University of South Dakota, SD·Biomedical Engineering
Assess the translation potential of a drug-coated angioplasty balloon for peripheral and cerebrovascular artery disease through first-hand interviews and investigation of the medical device industry in the I-Corps program.
Gangning Liang
University of Southern California, CA·Medicine & Clinical Research
Test whether DNA methylation marker panels measured in urine sediments can detect residual tumor cells after transurethral resection of bladder tumor in non-muscle invasive bladder cancer patients.
Amir Manbachi
Johns Hopkins University, MD·Biomedical Engineering
Assess, through customer discovery interviews, the clinical need for continuous ultrasound monitoring of blood vessels in hospitalized patients at risk of deep vein thrombosis.
The school
Ohio State University: 71 labs on PI Pages, $1.6B a year on research, 882 research doctorates a year.
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