CHINESE HOSPITAL SEEKS TO EXPAND COLLABORATION WITH REIDY CENTER

Old Dominion recently hosted a delegation of four physicians/surgeons/scientists from Hangzhou, China, which included a former ODU graduate student and postdoctoral fellow.

During the March 20-22 visit, they met with university officials at the Frank Reidy Research Center for Bioelectrics to establish a closer collaboration aimed at the further development of bioelectrics in the treatment of cancer.

The delegation, from the First Affiliate Hospital of Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, included Dr. Lin Zhou, associate director of the Liver Transplantation Center; Dr. Shengyong Yin, associate professor with the Surgery Lab; Dr. Zhenhua Hu, director of foreign affairs; and Dr. Xinhua Chen, attending surgeon with the Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery.

Chen was a graduate student with ODU's Jim Swanson, professor of biological sciences, and a postdoctoral fellow with Stephen Beebe, a research professor at the Reidy Center, between 2005 and 2011. Her studies at the university introduced her to pulse power technology with nanosecond pulsed electric fields (nsPEFs) for uses in cancer treatment.

The studies for her Ph.D. used nsPEFs for treatment of melanoma. However, since there are very few cases of melanoma in China, Chen began studies for her postdoctoral work using nsPEFs to treat hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), a liver cancer that is very common and a major treatment problem in China. Chen's work has demonstrated that nsPEFs can successfully treat HCC in mice and has been published recently in Technology in Cancer Research and Treatment.

The Chinese delegation visit included two days of presentations, tours and discussions focused on establishing formal collaborations between the Reidy Center for Bioelectrics and First Affiliate Hospital of Zhejiang University to treat HCC with nsPEFs. The visit concluded with a dinner hosted by ODU Provost Simpson for the Chinese guests and university officials at the Norfolk Yacht Club.