Profiles

Brent Weyers is currently a post-doctoral researcher in the Marcu Laboratory at the University of California Davis. In June 2022, Brent received his PhD from UC Davis in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. He also holds a credential as a Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM).

Brent's doctoral research investigated the use of Fluorescence lifetime imaging to optimize upper aerodigestive oncologic surgery through real-time surgical margin delineation. This work was motivated by the understanding that successful surgical oncology outcomes depend on a surgeon's ability to completely extirpate the full extent of a patient’s cancer volume, both gross and microscopic. Currently, there is a lack of technology capable of providing surgeons with real-time feedback to quantify the extent of tumor; therefore, cancer may be missed, or surgeons may potentially compromise benign tissue.

Brent's research investigated head & neck cancer from N=100 human patients, comprising N=45 patients with oral cavity cancer and N=55 patients with cancer of the oropharynx. This work demonstrated the ability for FLIm to integrate into classification algorithms to predict cancer probability; the technique was successful at demarcating both conventional primary and elusive occult primary tumors. This research involved translational aspects, requiring the coordination of research activities, and the establishment of validation, across clinical and engineering teams. Collectively, this investigation established proof-of-concept for optimizing surgical decision-making, thereby motivating further investigation to materialize this technology towards an intraoperative diagnostic modality.