Evening of Honor 2024

The Ovarian Cancer Institute (OCI) is a 501©3 not-for-profit corporation dedicated to the discovery of a highly accurate diagnostic test for early-stage ovarian cancer and to the investigation of more efficacious and less toxic forms of treatment for this most dreadful disease. Our laboratories are located at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where our researchers have access to multiple departments including biochemistry, bio-informatics, nanotechnology, and computer science.

In addition to the diagnostic test, our researchers are developing machine-learning algorithms to predict, with startling accuracy, the optimum drug for an individual patient's cancer, which is known as personalized or precision medicine. Another project involves the use of an RNA vector to deliver the chemotherapy drug directly to the cancer cell, allowing vast increases in dosage while greatly reducing or eliminating toxic side effects. One of our other researchers has developed a microfluidic device capable of capturing circulating cancer cells which will allow the diagnosis of a recurrent cancer to be made almost immediately. These cells can also be subjected to RNA sequencing which could be used to elucidate the correct treatment immediately. Research on this level is extremely expensive causing OCI to continue to explore novel modalities of funding