Lighting the Way for Quicker,
Safer Healing
Health and Medicine
Originating
Technology/ NASA Contribution
Who’s to say that a little light can’t go a long way?
Tiny light-emitting diode (LED) chips used to grow
plants in space are lighting the way for cancer treatment,
wound healing, and chronic pain alleviation on Earth.
In 1993, Quantum Devices,
Inc. (QDI), of Barneveld, Wisconsin, began developing the HEALS (High Emissivity
Aluminiferous Light-emitting Substrate) technology to provide high-intensity,
solid-state LED lighting systems for NASA Space Shuttle plant growth experiments.
The company evolved out of cooperative efforts with the Wisconsin Center for
Space Automation and Robotics (WCSAR) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison—a
NASA center for the Commercial Development of Space. Ronald W. Ignatius, QDI’s
president and chairman, represented one of WCSAR’s industrial partners at the
time. WCSAR was conducting research on light sources for promoting food growth
within closed environments where humans would be present for a long duration,
such as the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station.
With the support of WCSAR, Ignatius experimented with LEDs, which provide high-energy
efficiency and virtually no heat, despite releasing waves of light 10 times brighter
than the Sun. Ignatius admits that some scientists involved in the project were
skeptical at first, thinking that the idea of using LEDs to promote plant growth
was far-fetched. The experiments, however, demonstrated that red LED wavelengths
could boost the energy metabolism of cells to advance plant growth and photosynthesis.
This finding prompted Ignatius to develop a line of LED products that emit the
exact wavelength of light that plants use in photosynthesis.
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Red
light-emitting diodes are growing plants in
space and healing humans on Earth. |
“Our company gives credit to Dr. Ray Bula, the director
of WCSAR, for having the foresight to go against
the prevailing dogma of the time and design the first
plant experiment using monochromatic light to grow
lettuce plants,” Ignatius proclaims.
In 1989, Ignatius formed QDI to bring the salt grain-sized
LEDs to market, and in October 1995, the light sources
made their Space Shuttle flight debut on the second
U.S. Microgravity Laboratory Spacelab mission (STS-73,
Columbia).
Partnership
When NASA determined that red LEDs could grow plants
in space, Marshall Space Flight Center awarded QDI
several Small Business Innovation
Research (SBIR) contracts
to investigate the effectiveness of the broad-spectrum
diodes in medical applications. The contracts, issued
from 1995 to 1998, focused on increasing energy inside
human cells. It was NASA’s hope that the LEDs would
not only yield medical benefits on Earth, but that
they would help to stem the loss of bone and muscle
mass in astronauts, which occurs during long periods
of weightlessness. (In space, the lack of gravity keeps
human cells from growing naturally.) Furthermore, since
wounds are slow to heal in a microgravity environment,
LED therapy could accelerate healing and keep what
would be termed as minor wounds on Earth from becoming
mission-catastrophic in space.
In addition to promoting cell growth, the red LEDs
are capable of activating light-sensitive, tumor-treating
drugs that, when injected intravenously, could completely
destroy cancer cells while leaving surrounding tissue
virtually untouched. The technique, approved by the
U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in
laboratory and human trials, is known as Photodynamic
Therapy.
With the SBIR assistance from NASA, QDI set out to
alter a surgical probe that could emit long waves of
red light to stimulate a Benzoporphyrin-derivative
drug called Photofrin, which delivers fewer post-operative
side effects than comparable drugs. Ignatius additionally
developed a friendly and successful working relationship
with Dr. Harry Whelan, a professor of pediatric neurology
and director of hyperbaric medicine at the Medical
College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. The two had met
after Ignatius came across a newspaper article highlighting
Whelan’s ground-breaking brain cancer surgery technique,
which uses drugs stimulated by laser lights to accelerate
healing. Accordingly, QDI provided more than $1.25
million from its SBIR contracts to support Whelan’s
pioneering photobiomodulation research and bring him
onboard to help improve the surgical probe.
Collectively, Ignatius, Whelan, and researchers from
NASA successfully altered the probe for pediatric brain
tumors and the prevention of oral mucositis (a common
side effect of chemotherapy and radiation treatments)
in pediatric bone marrow transplant patients at the
Medical College of Wisconsin. In May 1998, a 20-year-old
female became the first patient to undergo surgery
with the modified probe. The young woman had endured
six brain surgeries and chemotherapy and radiation
treatments over a span of 10 years, but her aggressive
cancer kept coming back. Having exhausted all of her
conventional treatment options, she turned to the NASA-sponsored
Photodynamic Therapy technology.
During the procedure, surgeons excised as much of the
recurring brain tumor as they could, then injected
the light-activated Photofrin into her bloodstream
and inserted the LED probe into the remaining tumor
tissue. The probe, which casts long wavelengths that
generate less heat and penetrate deeper into tissue
than the shorter wavelengths of traditional medical
lasers, proved to be both safe and effective, as the
tumor never returned and the patient recovered with
no complications. A second operation that took place
3 months later on a male patient was also deemed successful
by Whelan and his team of Medical College of Wisconsin
surgeons.
FDA-approved clinical trials continued at several other
facilities over the next 3 years, including the Roswell
Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York; Rush-Presbyterian-St.
Luke’s Medical Center in Chicago; and the Instituto
de Oncologia Pediatrica in Sao Paulo, Brazil. QDI became
recognized as a U.S. Space Foundation “Space Technology
Hall of Fame” award recipient in 2000 and a Marshall
Space Flight Center “Hallmark of Success” in 2004.
Product Outcome
The positive clinical trial results, as well as continued
support from NASA and follow-on research grants from
the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, helped
QDI and the Medical College of Wisconsin to fully transition
space technology into a new, non-invasive medical device.
The WARP 10 (Warfighter Accelerated Recovery by Photobiomodulation)
is a high-intensity, hand-held, portable LED unit intended
for the temporary relief of minor muscle and joint
pain, arthritis, stiffness, and muscle spasms. It also
promotes relaxation of muscle tissue and increases
local blood circulation. Unlike the surgical probe,
the WARP 10 does not require intravenous medicine;
instead, the unit can be placed directly on the skin
where treatment is to occur.
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The
WARP 10 was designed to assist armed forces
personnel with immediate first aid and care
for minor injuries and pain. A consumer version
is also available. |
The WARP 10 was designed
to aid armed forces personnel on the front lines
with immediate first aid care for minor injuries
and pain, thereby improving endurance in combat.
The “soldier self care” device produces 80 times
more photon energy than a 250-Watt heat lamp, yet
it remains cool to the touch. The power advantage
reduces the time required for each therapeutic dose
and provides for faster multi-dose exposures when needed,
without the harmful effects of ultraviolet solar radiation.
The U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Navy are
currently issuing WARP 10 to crews on submarines and
Special Forces operations.
QDI has introduced an FDA-approved consumer version
sharing the same power and properties of the
military model, as an alternative to the cost and complications
associated with overuse of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory
drugs (NSAIDs) for persistent pain relief. According
to a Mayo Clinic study, adverse events associated with
the use of NSAIDs are reported more frequently to the
FDA than such events associated with any other group
of drugs. Furthermore, conservative calculations for
the United States estimate that approximately 107,000
patients are hospitalized each year for NSAID-related
gastrointestinal complications and at least 16,500
NSAID-related deaths occur annually among arthritis
patients alone, according to compiled research.
QDI is shedding the risks and costs linked with these
anti-inflammatory drugs in favor of shedding light
on safe and economical human healing.
HEALS® and WARP 10® are registered trademarks of
QDI, Inc.
Photodynamic™ Therapy is a trademark of QDI, Inc.
Photofrin®
is a registered trademark of Axcan Pharma Inc.
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