Cancer Researcher Joins Reidy Center

Richard Heller, the renowned cancer researcher and pioneer in the use of electrogenetherapy, was named in July as executive director of Old Dominion’s Frank Reidy Research Center for Bioelectrics.

“An important strength of the center is that it includes both engineers and biologists working side by side,” said Heller, who had been recruited to the faculty earlier in the year. “This structure affords us a tremendous opportunity to develop approaches and instrumentation that would be effective in treating, preventing or diagnosing several types of diseases, including cancer.”

Heller succeeds the center’s founder, Karl Schoenbach, eminent scholar and Batten Endowed Chair in Bioelectric Engineering, who is recognized worldwide as one of the founders of the field of bioelectrics, and will continue to conduct research.

Both Heller and his wife, Loree, have joined the faculty as researchers. Their expertise in electrogenetherapy promises to advance the center’s already groundbreaking research in cancer therapies that utilize ultrafast pulses of electricity.