"Harnessing Light to Treat Cancer"
 | Speaker: Tayyaba Hasan, PhD Date: September 29, 2026, noon-1 p.m. Location: Roy Blunt NextGen Precision Health Building |
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60-Second Promo
Description
“There's no anatomical barrier to this technology. These therapies can go to the brain, to the eye, to the joints and to the bugs (infections).”
Dr. Tayyaba Hasan, a professor in the departments of Dermatology and Health Science Technology at Harvard Medical School and MIT, has dedicated her career to exploring the medical applications of red light. Coming from a foundational background in physical chemistry, her research now focuses on harnessing light to activate specific chemicals within the body to fight disease.
The main advantage of this platform technology is its precision and safety. She introduces molecules which are completely inactive on their own, so nothing happens until they come into direct contact with a targeted light source. Using modern tools like endoscopes and tiny LEDs, clinicians can pinpoint the light to activate the drug exactly where the therapy is needed. Dr. Hasan’s pioneering work in this area led to the rapid FDA approval of Visudyne in the early 2000s, a breakthrough photodynamic therapy used to destroy abnormal blood vessels and prevent blindness in patients with age-related macular degeneration.
Today, her team is exploring how this same technology can be used to treat pancreatic cancer. Beyond simply destroying the primary tumor, the light interaction “primes” the surrounding cellular microenvironment. This priming effect increases tissue permeability, activates the immune system, and has the potential to make stubborn pancreatic cancers highly responsive to standard immunotherapies. Beyond that, these light-activated molecules also fluoresce, providing vital real-time image guidance for surgeons who are trying to locate the precise margins of a tumor during surgery.
About the Speaker
Dr. Tayyaba Hasan has established a collaborative group of scientists which she leads to further her award-winning work in photochemistry-based approaches (photodynamic therapy, or PDT) for the treatment and diagnosis of disease.
As a well-known mentor and advocate for diverse and often-marginalized young scientists, Dr. Hasan has advocated and guided more than 350 researchers to better hone their collaborative and scientific efforts over her career, many of whom have gone on to create their own labs or joined industry and commercial ventures. Dr. Hasan is the proud recipient of thirteen significant or lifetime achievement awards, including the presidential PAESMEM award for mentoring. She is recognized as a well-respected leader by the leading international organizations in her field.
The overall scientific strategy of her lab is to develop molecular mechanisms and optical imaging-based combination treatment regimens where one treatment arm involves light activation of certain near-infrared-absorbing chemicals. This program identifies various cellular and molecular targets for specific diseases and designs constructs for optimal photochemical treatment effects. The targeting entities include photoactivatable nanoparticles and small molecules.
In cancer, the focus malignancies are ovarian, prostate, pancreas and head and neck cancers.
In infections and infectious diseases, efforts are targeted toward developing microbial-enzyme-specific photoactivatable molecules for use in PDT. She targets organisms like leishmaniasis, Mycobacterium tuberculosis and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.
In addition, optimal imaging strategies develop target-specific molecular probes for in situ monitoring of cellular processes during treatment, such as the up-regulation of vascular endothelial growth factor.
About the Discovery Series
The NextGen Precision Health Discovery Series provides learning opportunities for UM System faculty and staff across disciplines, the statewide community and our other partners to learn about the scope of precision health research and identify potential collaborative opportunities. The series consists of monthly lectures geared toward a broad multidisciplinary audience so all can participate and appreciate the spectrum of precision health efforts.
For questions about this event or any others in the Discovery Series, please reach out to Mackenzie Lynch.