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UC Irvine Beckman Laser Institute & Medical Clinic Welcomes Stacy Copp and Amir Rahmani

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UC Irvine Beckman Laser Institute & Medical Clinic welcomes two distinguished interdisciplinary researchers to its growing faculty: Drs. Stacy Copp and Amir Rahmani. Their appointments highlight the Institute’s ongoing dedication to pushing the boundaries of biophotonics, medical advancements, and cutting-edge healthcare technologies.

Stacy Copp, Ph.D., Associate Professor

Dr. Stacy Copp joins the Institute from the Samueli School of Engineering, as a leader in nanomaterials science and engineering. Her research focuses on the design and development of DNA-templated silver nanoclusters, which are programmable, ultra-small fluorescent nanomaterials with highly tunable optical properties. By leveraging the precision of DNA sequences to control nanocluster size, structure, and emission wavelength, Dr. Copp’s work sits at a compelling intersection of chemistry, materials science, and optical engineering.

Her work adds a new dimension to the Institute’s photonics and imaging efforts. DNA-templated nanoclusters, which can be precisely engineered at the atomic level, hold great promise as next-generation fluorescent probes for biological imaging, biosensing, and diagnostics, all of which are central to the Institute’s mission. This groundbreaking technology paves the way for advanced deep tissue imaging, early disease detection, and targeted molecular sensing with capabilities that conventional fluorophores cannot achieve

“Dr. Copp’s nanocluster research is precisely the caliber of innovative, materials-driven science that has the power to transform how we use light to explore the human body,” said Bernard Choi, Institute Director and Arnold and Mabel Beckman Endowed Chair in Laser Biomedicine. “Her pioneering work will open new doors in how we see, understand, and ultimately improve biological systems.”

Amir Rahmani, Ph.D., Professor and Samueli Endowed Chair in Integrative Health

Dr. Amir Rahmani’s research is at the intersection of artificial intelligence, wearable sensing technologies, and personalized digital health. Based in UC Irvine Sue & Bill Gross School of Nursing, Dr. Rahmani holds the prestigious Samueli Endowed Chair in Integrative Health, a testament to the transformative impact of his work on patient-centered, data-driven healthcare.

Dr. Rahmani’s research encompasses AI-powered health monitoring systems, Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) platforms, and intelligent edge-computing frameworks that enable real-time, continuous health assessment outside of traditional clinical settings. His work has produced wearable and remote monitoring solutions capable of detecting physiological changes with remarkable sensitivity, spanning stress, sleep disorders, cardiac events, and chronic disease progression.

His expertise creates a natural synergy between the Institute’s optical and laser-based measurement capabilities and the broader ecosystem of continuous AI-enhanced health monitoring. Wearable photonics, including optical pulse oximetry, photoplethysmography, and near-infrared spectroscopy, are becoming increasingly central to remote patient monitoring. In this rapidly evolving landscape, Dr. Rahmani’s knowledge in intelligent data processing and clinical deployment provides a critical link that bridges laser technology and real-world medical outcomes.

“Dr. Rahmani connects the power of light-based measurement with the transformative potential of artificial intelligence,” said Dr. Choi. “Together, these disciplines will help us deliver smarter, more responsive patient care.”

A New Era in Precision Health

The appointments of Drs. Copp and Rahmani reflect the Institute’s evolving vision that extends beyond traditional laser medicine to embrace nanoscale optical engineering, digital health, and AI-driven clinical discoveries. Together, they add complementary mastery that spans modern biophotonics: from the engineering of light-emitting nanomaterials at the molecular scale, to the intelligent interpretation of optical health data in real time.

As the Institute continues to unite scientists, engineers, and clinicians, the addition of Drs. Copp and Rahmani positions the Institute at the cutting edge of 21st-century health innovation. Together, their pioneering work promises to drive transformative advances in medical technology, shaping a healthier and brighter future for patients worldwide.

 

 

 

40 years in the light

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How a rainy-morning handshake between a young UC Irvine biologist and an 80-year-old industrialist built one of the world’s most influential laser medicine institutions

In 1980, Michael Berns sent invitations to every biotech and medical company CEO he could find in Orange County. A UC Irvine cell biologist with a habit of pointing lasers at things nobody else thought to aim them at, Berns wanted them to see the Laser Microbeam Program – a machine he’d spent a year building that could fire a tunable laser beam at living cells. Almost no one showed up.

But one man did. On a rainy night, Arnold O. Beckman – then 80 years old, the inventor of the pH meter, and still running Beckman Instruments nearby – walked into Berns’ lab and was captivated by what he saw. Beckman’s investment in an unproven young professor would, within a few years, produce something that didn’t exist anywhere else in the world: a single building where laser physicists, cell biologists, engineers and practicing doctors worked off the same hallway, turning lab ideas into patient treatments.

That building, the Beckman Laser Institute & Medical Clinic, turns 40 this year. Over four decades, it has produced a device now built into tens of thousands of medical lasers worldwide, trained a generation of researchers who now run their own labs and startups, and helped put UC Irvine on the map as a serious research university.

“The Beckman Laser Institute was built on the idea that scientists, engineers and physicians working together could accelerate the pace with which new technologies could be transformed into life-changing treatments for patients,” says Hal Stern, UC Irvine provost and executive vice chancellor. “That work remains vitally important 40 years later, and BLI continues to grow its network of academic, industry and government partners.”

A handshake, then a building

Berns arrived at UC Irvine in 1972 to teach zoology. He’d gotten into lasers almost by accident as a Cornell graduate student in 1966, when a professor mentioned that the department had bought a small laser and had no idea what to do with it. Berns took control, performing the first-ever surgery on a single chromosome and eventually becoming known as the father of the laser microbeam.

A federal grant in 1979 gave Berns his instrument. Beckman’s check, handed over in 1982, gave him a building. The Beckman Laser Institute opened its doors in 1986, with Berns as founding director – a role colleagues say he never really let go of, even decades later.

Elliot Botvinick, a UC Irvine professor who trained under Berns in the early 2000s, says the building itself reflects Berns’ foresight. It’s one of the only facilities anywhere combining a medical clinic with biology and engineering labs. The idea was simple: Inventions from the lab bench should mature and reach patients in the clinic next door. Many of them did.

Berns died in August 2022 at age 79. His research, cited more than 26,000 times, touched everything from fertility to endangered-species preservation. He received UC Irvine’s highest honor in 1994, and the world’s leading optics society posthumously awarded him its lifetime achievement medal in 2022.

The baseball game that changed laser surgery

If the institute has one origin story capturing how it works – basic science, engineering and bedside medicine placed in the same room until something useful falls out – it’s that of the Dynamic Cooling Device.

In the early 1990s, Dr. J. Stuart Nelson was trying to improve laser treatments for port-wine birthmarks, the reddish-purple stains that can appear on infants’ skin. The problem: Laser light strong enough to destroy the blood vessels causing the birthmark also burned the delicate skin above them. Ice, cold water and chilled metal plates all failed – they cooled the target vessels right along with the skin, blunting the laser’s effect.

The fix arrived over dinner. Nelson, researcher Thomas Milner and visiting engineer Lars Svaasand were eating at a nearby restaurant on a Friday night when Nelson remembered something from watching baseball: When a batter got hit by a foul ball, a trainer would sprint out and spray a numbing chemical on the injury. The three realized that a fast-evaporating cold spray could anesthetize and protect just the skin’s surface without cooling the vessels underneath.

By Monday, Milner and Svaasand had driven to an auto parts store for a fuel injector valve, a hose clamp and air conditioning coolant – parts for their first working prototype. All three men tested it on their own arms to get the timing right, leaving scars they still carry today. The result: a device that mounts on a laser and sprays a burst of freezing mist onto skin milliseconds before the laser pulse hits.

The technology was patented in 1998 and licensed to Candela Laser Corp. It’s now standard equipment on more than 47,000 lasers sold worldwide. Between 2001 and 2010, it ranked among the University of California’s 10 top-earning inventions – one of the most valuable patents the 10-campus UC system has ever produced – generating tens of millions of dollars in royalties for UC Irvine. Nelson has since used it on more than 20,000 port-wine birthmark patients.

Building an engine for translation

The device’s success wasn’t a fluke – it was the model working as designed. Bruce Tromberg joined Berns’ lab in 1988, became the Beckman Laser Institute’s director in 2003 and ran it for 15 years. Under Tromberg, BLI earned recognition from the National Institutes of Health as a national resource center, meaning that outside researchers could also use its equipment.

Tromberg’s own research led to a handheld device that scans breast tissue for signs of cancer without a biopsy, reading a tumor’s chemical fingerprint through the skin. It was tested at five hospitals countrywide, including UC San Francisco Medical Center and Massachusetts General Hospital, and was later licensed to a Bay Area company.

In 2018, the head of the National Institutes of Health tapped Tromberg to lead the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering – the first time a director of the Beckman Laser Institute left to run a national agency, a sign of how central the Irvine team had become to U.S. science policy. By the time he moved on, Tromberg held roughly two dozen patents and had co-founded a biophotonics company of his own.

Tromberg returned on Oct. 8 to Irvine for a 40th anniversary celebration for the Beckman Laser Institute, where he served as the featured speaker.

“Beckman Laser Institute has impacted so many different UC Irvine programs over the decades,” Tromberg said at the event. “The bottom line is that these programs have changed the landscape of academia. They are driving innovation and entrepreneurship for critical parts of what happens in universities. That is exactly the case here, and it’s the case all around the country.”

The next generation of light

Today’s roster of researchers continues Berns’ vision. Here are just a few of the innovative projects undertaken by Beckman Laser Institute investigators.

Bernard Choi, a biomedical engineering professor named the institute’s permanent director in 2026, now leads a $7.2 million Department of Defense project bringing light-based diagnostics to battlefield medicine – tools to detect burns, brain injuries and internal bleeding without a single needle or scan. His lab has also designed wearable sensors that track vital signs in extreme conditions, and one of his inventions is already helping physicians monitor diabetic patients to prevent amputations.

Other institute researchers are chasing their own breakthroughs: Zhongping Chen has spent his career refining a scanning technology that lets doctors see inside the eye and heart without any incisions. Elliot Botvinick uses laser “tweezers” – beams of light precise enough to tug on individual cells – to study how cancer and wounds develop. Mihaela Balu built a scanner, now headed into clinical trials, that can catch skin cancer at the cellular level without a biopsy. And Petra Wilder-Smith created a camera that helps dentists spot oral cancer, a disease whose survival rates have barely budged in decades, far more accurately than before.

Anthony Durkin originated noninvasive optical systems that monitor eye tissue health and track disease progression in real time. And Brian Wong has developed laser-based imaging and therapeutic equipment with applications in cancer detection and tissue engineering, with a particular focus on translating laboratory advances into practical tools that physicians can use at the bedside.

Their work has spun off real businesses and real devices: Alumni of the institute now lead a company making tissue-monitoring technology, and a separate team’s early-detection instrument for arterial disease was acquired by medical device giant Medtronic.

The Beckman Laser Institute doesn’t just produce discoveries; it produces scientists. A summer training program launched in 2013 has shaped the careers of hundreds of students and industry researchers. In 2017, the facility began welcoming undergraduates from historically Black colleges and universities into a dedicated summer research program, later expanded into a broader initiative to open doors in STEM for students who don’t typically get access.

40 years on

The institute’s founding bet – that a physicist, a biologist and a doctor could do better work standing in the same hallway than emailing across campus – has led to decades of success. Federal agencies have poured tens of millions of dollars into the Beckman Laser Institute & Medical Clinic over four decades, and much of that money has multiplied: The cooling device alone has returned close to $60 million in royalties that helped fund the next round of research.

Forty years after a rainy-morning demonstration turned into a check, and a check turned into a building, the model still holds: bench to bedside, one laser at a time.

Click here to read full UC Irvine News article.

Celebrating 40 Years: Illuminating the Future of Medicine

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On a campus where light meets life, UC Irvine’s Beckman Laser Institute & Medical Clinic gathered 250 of its closest friends — scientists, clinicians, alumni, students, and donors — to look back on four transformative decades and to illuminate the road ahead.

On Thursday, October 8, 2026, UC Irvine Beckman Laser Institute & Medical Clinic (BLI) celebrated its 40th anniversary — a day of reflection, discovery, and camaraderie befitting an institution that has devoted four decades to advancing laser and optical technologies in medicine to improve the lives of patients worldwide. The day unfolded as a testament to what curiosity, collaboration, and shared commitment can build — one breakthrough, one trainee, and one patient at a time.

THE MINI RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM

The day began with a Mini Research Symposium that united current and former Institute researchers for a half-day of discovery. The symposium was organized around three pillars: showcasing groundbreaking research and translational impact, building foundations for future careers, and honoring a legacy of partnership and collaboration.

Institute Director Bernard Choi opened the proceedings before a roster of distinguished speakers took the stage. Sessions spanned the breadth of the Institute’s scientific portfolio, from clinical therapy to nanoscale imaging, and drew participants from institutions across the globe.

The symposium set an intellectual tone that would carry through the rest of the day — one of rigorous inquiry, cross-disciplinary dialogue, and an eye firmly fixed on improving lives at the end of the research pipeline.

THE ANNIVERSARY PROGRAM: HONORING FOUR DECADES OF DISCOVERY

The Mini Research Symposium set the stage for the 40th Anniversary Celebration program, bringing together supporters who collectively represent the Institute’s past, present, and future.

Director Bernard Choi: Welcome Institute Family

Bernard Choi, who has been part of the Institute family for twenty-five years, opened the celebration with warmth and gratitude. He welcomed distinguished guests including Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation representatives Kaerie Ray and Esther Devanney. Representing the former nonprofit Beckman Laser Institute, Inc., Arthur Fine made a special journey from Arizona to attend — a gesture that spoke to the deep bonds forged within BLI’s community over the decades.

“I’ve had the great fortune of being part of the Beckman Laser Institute family for 25 years, and I’ve had the privilege of working alongside some of the brightest, most innovative minds in our field,” stated Choi.

Provost Hal Stern: A University’s Investment in Light

UC Irvine Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Hal Stern, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Statistics and former founding chair of that same department, delivered remarks that situated the Institute within the broader arc of the university’s academic mission. He paid tribute to Foundation board members, industry partners, and community leaders whose sustained support made four decades of discovery possible.

Stern traced the Institute’s origins to 1986, when founding director Michael Berns and a small team of students and staff first opened the Institute’s doors, united by the conviction that placing scientists, engineers, and physicians side by side would accelerate the journey from laboratory bench to patient bedside.

“Technologies and discoveries developed here are now built into medical devices used around the world. They have made treatments safer and less painful for millions of patients,” stated Stern.

Among the landmark achievements Stern highlighted was Medical Director Stuart Nelson’s Dynamic Cooling Device (DCD) — a groundbreaking innovation that protects the skin during laser treatment and has become an indispensable tool in treating vascular malformations, earning its place as one of the most valuable patents in the history of the University of California. He also announced a milestone investment in the Institute’s future: the establishment of the Michael W. Berns Chair in Biophotonics, honoring the Institute’s founding director. Tammy Karn, Michael Berns’ daughter, was present for the occasion, honoring her father’s enduring legacy alongside the community he helped build.

“Forty years in, BLI stands as an internationally recognized center for biomedical photonics, laser medicine, and translational optical research,” Stern told the assembled guests. “The Institute is well positioned to generate significant and lasting impact for UC Irvine and the broader region — attracting pioneers developing new light-source and imaging technologies, researchers working to detect and cure disease, and entrepreneurs dedicated to bringing new solutions to market.”

A Conversation with Bruce J. Tromberg: From BLI to the NIH

The evening’s special guest was Bruce Tromberg, Director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) at the National Institutes of Health — and, as many in the room could attest, a BLI alumnus through and through.

Tromberg’s connection to the Institute runs deep. He arrived at the Institute in 1988 as a Hewitt Foundation postdoctoral fellow, rising through the ranks to become a professor of biomedical engineering and surgery at UC Irvine and ultimately serving as the Institute’s director from 2003 to 2018 before joining NIH in 2019. With that history behind him, Tromberg was uniquely positioned to reflect on where the Institute began — recounting the pivotal meeting between philanthropist Arnold Beckman and pioneering scientist Michael Berns that would lay the foundation for the Institute’s creation and set its course for decades to come. He spoke with conviction about the profound impact that foundation has had on human health, from groundbreaking discoveries in the laboratory to life-changing advances in patient care.

Gratitude and Legacy

The program also became an occasion for meaningful recognition. Choi presented Tromberg with a crystal etching of the Institute building — crafted from a photograph taken by the late Paul Kennedy, a longtime friend of the Institute whose lens had captured countless scientists and clinicians at work.

A gift was also presented to Kaerie Ray and Esther Devanney of the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation, in honor of the Foundation’s four decades of unwavering support. Choi credited the Foundation and the enduring legacy of Arnold Beckman, founder of Beckman Instruments, Inc., as an indispensable pillar of the Institute’s identity and growth.

A significant moment of the evening came with the recognition of faculty member and distinguished scientist Robert Brown and his wife Kit Brown. Their extraordinary philanthropic commitment to the Institute’s future was formalized through two transformative gifts. This includes the: Robert G. W. Brown Graduate Student Fellowship, which provides critical funding to support exceptional graduate students pursuing cutting-edge research at the Institute, ensuring emerging scientific minds have the resources they need to succeed.  In addition, Robert G. W. Brown Endowment for Nanophotonics, which empowers research teams to explore bold new directions, develop emerging technologies, and accelerate the translation of groundbreaking discoveries into real-world impact.

“Your generosity will inspire and enable transformative research at the Institute for generations to come,” Choi told the Browns as they joined him at the podium. “Together, your gifts reflect Robert’s lifelong passion for scientific discovery, mentorship, and education — and Kit’s steadfast support of that vision.”

RECEPTION & DEMONSTRATIONS: SCIENCE BEYOND THE LAB

At 5:00 p.m., the celebration moved to the halls of the Institute for a reception and live laboratory demonstrations — the embodiment of Provost Stern’s call to “see the bench-to-bedside model firsthand.” Seventeen faculty lab demonstrations invited guests to engage directly with technologies that are actively changing lives. The breadth of innovation on display was staggering, spanning dermatology, oncology, cardiology, neurology, ophthalmology, and beyond.

As the evening drew to a close and guests lingered among lasers and light-based wonders, the mood was one of celebration — but also of forward motion. The announcements of the Michael W. Berns Chair in Biophotonics, the Brown Graduate Student Fellowship, and the Brown Endowment for Nanophotonics signaled that Institute’s best chapters may still be unwritten.

The Institute enters its fifth decade with a faculty spanning the UC Irvine Schools of Medicine, Engineering, Physical Sciences, and Biological Sciences; a medical clinic that transforms the lives of patients through innovative laser-based treatments and therapies — offering new hope to those facing conditions that have long challenged conventional medicine; an expanding network of industry and government partners; and a global reputation that draws the world’s most talented researchers to campus.

If 40 years of bending light to heal the human body is the prelude, one can only imagine what the next four decades will illuminate. None of it, however, would be possible without the steadfast support of those who believe in the Institute’s mission — the donors, partners, collaborators, and friends who have championed Institute’s work from its earliest days and continue to do so today. Their generosity fuels the curiosity to discover, the ingenuity to create, and the commitment to educate the next generation of scientists, clinicians, and innovators. As the Institute looks toward its next chapter, it does so with deep gratitude for all who have helped — and who continue to help — make the impossible possible.

A platinum lens and a trickle of current reshaped a cornea in about a minute

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By BeckhamLangford | Published

Passing a weak electric current through a contact lens made of platinum softened the cornea of a rabbit eyeball enough that its curvature shifted to match the lens in about one minute. Chemist Michael Hill of Occidental College and surgeon Brian Wong of the University of California, Irvine, reported the result, and it remains one of the more unusual candidates for replacing the laser in refractive eye surgery.

The account has been circulating for more than a year, and its dating needs care. The material was presented to the American Chemical Society’s fall meeting in August 2025, and a ScienceDaily page credited to the society carries a September 2026 date for what is the same story, with the same 12 rabbit eyeballs. Everything below therefore reads as an explainer of an early laboratory result, not as a fresh announcement.

Electromechanical reshaping and the platinum mold

The technique is called electromechanical reshaping, or EMR. Instead of cutting or vaporizing corneal tissue, as LASIK does, EMR places a platinum lens shaped to the desired corneal curve against the eye and applies a small electric potential. The American Chemical Society release as first posted on ScienceDaily describes the platinum lens acting as an electrode, with the current temporarily making the tissue pliable.

Hill put the contrast bluntly in the UC Irvine Beckman Laser Institute account: “LASIK is just a fancy way of doing traditional surgery. It’s still carving tissue, it’s just carving with a laser.” In EMR, nothing is removed. The cornea is held against the mold while the chemistry does the work, and when the current stops the tissue keeps its new shape. Because no tissue is removed, the researchers also point to possible reversibility and to simpler, less costly equipment than a surgical laser, though neither advantage has been tested in a living eye. Laser surgery, by contrast, permanently removes a measured layer of corneal tissue in every case.

Wong described how the idea arose. “The whole effect was discovered by accident,” he said, explaining that he had been looking at living tissues as moldable materials rather than as structures to be carved. His team had earlier shown the same principle on rabbit ears and on scar tissue in pigs, according to a second Beckman Laser Institute report, before turning to the eye.

The pH window that keeps the cornea clear

The current does not burn anything. It shifts the acidity of the collagen that gives the cornea its shape. Lower pH loosens the ionic bonds between collagen fibers, so the tissue can be pressed into a new curve, and when the pH returns toward normal the bonds re-form and lock that curve in place.

The difficulty is how little room there is. In an interview with The Scientist, Hill said collagen becomes malleable around pH 2 but turns opaque at pH 1.5, leaving “this tiny, narrow, little window” for reshaping. Delivering the current in intermittent bursts, rather than continuously, gives the acidity time to diffuse away through the tissue. Modeling was used to choose the burst frequency and duration.

Within that window the results were encouraging. Ten of the 12 rabbit eyeballs were treated to mimic nearsightedness, and in those the curvature moved to give the intended focusing power. Live Science’s report notes that the cells survived the treatment, which is the property that separates a reshaped cornea from a damaged one. The same work found the process took about a minute, roughly the duration of a LASIK procedure but without incisions.

Rabbit eyeballs, living tissue and a funding gap

The caveats are large. All 12 eyes were isolated rabbit eyeballs, not living animals and not people. Hill cautioned that a long road separates the laboratory result from the clinic. The team’s next steps are experiments in living rabbits, then tests of whether EMR can correct astigmatism and farsightedness as well as nearsightedness.

Durability is the question Hill raised most directly. A reshaped cornea that drifted back to its original curve within a couple of days would be of little practical use, Hill told The Scientist, and no one yet knows how long a reshaped living cornea would hold its form.

Funding is the other constraint. The work is supported by the National Eye Institute and the John Stauffer Charitable Trust, according to the September 2026 ScienceDaily page, yet Hill has said that uncertain funding is slowing the path toward human trials. A technique that needs only a mold and a modest electrical supply could in principle be cheaper than a laser suite, a point the researchers raise, but that remains a projection and not a measurement.

Corneal cloudiness from chemical injury often requires a transplant, and the researchers suggest EMR might one day treat it. The live-rabbit data from Hill and Wong will decide whether that moves beyond 12 isolated eyes.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.

Click here to read full Morning Overview article.

 

Gina Rinehart backs breakthrough X-ray technology that could detect cancer

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14 July 2026 – 05:51AM

Sky News host Rita Panahi highlights Gina Rinehart’s $72 million investment in Australian imaging technology capable of detecting both cancer and contaminants in iron ore. “Hancock Prospecting executive chairwoman Gina Rinehart is investing $72 million dollars into the X-ray company Lumitron,” Ms Panahi said. “The revolutionary imaging technology can detect contaminants in iron ore but also cancer.”

https://www.skynews.com.au/opinion/rita-panahi/gina-rinehart-backs-breakthrough-xray-technology-that-could-detect-cancer/video/619547a04128ac44045090b256bbac23

Click here or visit https://www.skynews.com.au/opinion/rita-panahi/gina-rinehart-backs-breakthrough-xray-technology-that-could-detect-cancer/video/619547a04128ac44045090b256bbac23 to watch Skynews.com.au broadcast.

 

 

UC Irvine Anti-Cancer Challenge 2025 Awardees

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The UC Irvine Anti-Cancer Challenge is proud to announce the funding of a diverse range of innovative cancer research projects at the UCI Health Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and its pediatric cancer affiliate, CHOC, part of Rady Children’s Health.

Through the unwavering support of dedicated participants, donors and supporters who collectively raised more than $1.5 million in 2025, the Anti-Cancer Challenge has awarded grants to 30 pilot projects and early phase clinical trials, reaching a remarkable milestone of 190 funded projects since 2017. These projects are poised to revolutionize the future of cancer diagnosis, treatment and cures.

Anti-Cancer Challenge funds novel research projects article | UCI Health | Orange County, CA

By registering for the 2026 Anti-Cancer Challenge, you can help fund the next round of innovative cancer research projects.

Track 1: Pilot Projects

A New Strategy to Kill Kinase Inhibitor Resistant Tumors
Investigator
Anand Ganesan, MD, Department of Dermatology, UC Irvine School of Medicine
Small molecule inhibitors that target kinase mutations observed in cancer can rapidly shrink tumors with the relevant mutations, but these tumors can recur rapidly (< 6 months) by activating signaling loops that bypass the effects of kinase inhibitors. Kinase inhibitor resistant tumors are no longer responsive to either kinase inhibitor therapies or immunotherapies, and new approaches are needed to prevent resistance/ treat resistant tumors. UCI-developed drugs that target CDC42 signaling can block signaling loops activated in resistant tumors, identifying a new way to treat kinase inhibitor resistant tumors. We uncover how CDC42 inhibitors developed by our group kill kinase inhibitor resistant tumors and identify CDC42 signaling pathways that are amplified in kinase inhibitor resistant human tumors.

Robotic-Guided Optical Coherence Tomography for Real-Time Evaluation of Peripheral Pulmonary Nodules in Early Lung Cancer Detection
Investigators
Thomas W Waddington, MD, Department of Medicine, UC Irvine School of Medicine
Zhongping Chen, PhD, Department of Biomedical Engineering, UC Irvine Samueli School of Engineering
Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer-related death, and many patients undergo invasive biopsies to determine whether a lung nodule is cancerous. Current imaging methods can locate nodules but cannot provide detailed structural information before tissue is removed, exposing patients to risks such as bleeding or lung collapse. This project will integrate a high-resolution optical imaging technology with robotic bronchoscopy to allow physicians to visualize microscopic tissue features in real time during evaluation. By improving early and more precise assessment of lung nodules, this approach may reduce unnecessary procedures and enhance the safety and accuracy of lung cancer diagnosis.

Click here or visit https://bit.ly/acc-awardees-2025 to see a full list of UC Irvine Anti-Cancer Challenge 2025 awardees.

Hancock Prospecting backs Lumitron to advance world-first mining, imaging and cancer therapy technology

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Australian-backed investment to support global commercial scale-up of HyperVIEW™ across healthcare and mining industrial applications

Australia, June 2026 – Hancock Prospecting has provided an initial US$50 million investment into Lumitron, with the right to increase its investment to US$100 million during the 2026 calendar year. The funding will support the commercial scale-up and deployment of the company’s HyperVIEW™ Very High Energy Electron (VHEE) beam and advanced X-ray technology platforms across cancer care, healthcare, mining and industrial applications.

The investment positions Hancock Prospecting as a strategic investor as Lumitron accelerates toward global commercialization. As part of the agreement, Hancock Prospecting has nominated a representative to the Lumitron board to support collaboration and commercialization initiatives across priority markets.

Hancock has two members on the technical review committee, including Dr. Glenn Rice, a biophysics and oncology drug-development expert (former COO and President of Pharmacyclics; Stanford Research Institute; and Genentech). And Hancock Prospecting is particularly pleased to have secured the right to bring three of these advanced systems to Australia. These will be the first three of such vitally important and massively improved cancer detection and treatment systems to come to Australia.

Rice stated, “Lumitron has developed HyperVIEW™, a world-first platform of imaging systems and electron beam radiotherapy machines designed to deliver ultra-high-resolution X-ray imaging and VHEE beam radiotherapy capability within a compact architecture, deployable in existing clinical environments.

“Lumitron represents the first fundamental change in clinical radiotherapy in 70 years, and the first fundamental change in clinical and industrial X-ray radiography in 130 years.”

Lumitron hardware and clinical capability

Rice explained further, “built on patented laser-Compton physics originally developed at the world-renowned Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, HyperVIEW™ is designed to deliver capabilities traditionally associated with large-scale research infrastructure in a compact system suitable for broader clinical and industrial deployment.”

“Recent peer-reviewed studies have identified HyperVIEW™ as the world’s highest-resolution commercial compact mono-energetic X-ray imaging machines. Depending on the hardware configuration, the technology can deliver between 100 and 1000 times greater imaging resolution than conventionally produced X-ray systems, with up to 100 times lower radiation dose than existing technologies.”

“This higher resolution will improve early cancer detection and the precision of treatment. Its VHEE beam radiotherapy capability has been developed to deliver highly localized radiation treatment in less than a heartbeat, whilst reducing damage to healthy tissue.”

“The U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) granted Breakthrough Device Designation to Lumitron’s HyperVIEW™ breast cancer imaging technology. Studies published in the peer-reviewed journal Medical Physics demonstrated clinically significant (breast compression-free) imaging performance improvements of more than 3000 per cent across breast cancer imaging metrics compared with leading clinical systems from leading OEMs.”

“Additional peer-reviewed research published in Frontiers in Physics demonstrated new records in laser-Compton X-ray output, high-resolution X-ray imaging capability, and very high energy electron (VHEE) FLASH radiotherapy capabilities achieved through the HyperVIEW™ platform,” Rice concluded.

Applications across healthcare and the mining industry

Rinehart added, “In healthcare, HyperVIEW™ has been developed for advanced medical imaging and precision radiotherapy applications designed to greatly improve the speed and accuracy of cancer detection and treatment. Hancock Prospecting’s investment will support Lumitron to develop its first commercially focused VHEE FLASH radiotherapy machine, a capability that does not currently exist for commercial use.”

Maurie Stang, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Lumitron Technologies, noted, “We greatly welcome Rinehart’s and Hancock’s participation. Hancock’s funding will enable Lumitron to produce the first commercially focused VHEE FLASH machine.”

Rinehart added, “In mining and resources applications, HyperVIEW™ is designed to go beyond conventional industrial X-ray systems, which are typically limited to analysing the shape and density of materials. HyperVIEW™ has the potential to identify the composition and concentration of minerals and contaminants in ore, allowing mining operators to selectively process higher-value ore, thereby improving recovery rates while potentially reducing energy consumption and overall processing costs.”

Rice added, “In future advanced manufacturing and 3D additive manufacturing applications, HyperVIEW™ is designed to detect microscopic structural defects at scales as small as one twentieth the width of a human hair in real time, supporting quality assurance and material analysis.”

Commercialization and strategic partnerships

“Lumitron has developed unique capabilities and intellectual property in ultrafast lasers and compact accelerators. It holds exclusive commercialization rights to core intellectual property underpinning the HyperVIEW™ platform, comprising a licensed patent portfolio spanning more than 14 patent families,” Rice said.

Dr. Chris Barty, Co-Founder, Executive Director and Chief Technology Officer of Lumitron Technologies, said the company had spent nearly a decade developing proprietary hardware and manufacturing capability required to commercialize the platform.

“We have developed unique laser and accelerator hardware capable of delivering world-leading X-ray and electron beam performance from a compact platform architecture,” Barty said.

“These are capabilities that have historically not been commercially available in deployable systems and have the potential to impact medicine, industry and scientific research.”

Rinehart continued, “The company is engaged with major U.S. scientific and government research organizations, including the United States Department of Energy and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), alongside academic and clinical organizations, including the University of California, Irvine and Australia’s I-MED Radiology Network. Hancock Prospecting’s investment reflects our view that Lumitron Technologies has developed an advanced technology platform with applications spanning healthcare, mining research, and advanced manufacturing. I am especially excited about the potential to help patients in Australia and overseas who are suffering from up to stage 4 cancer, after the equipment has been approved for use in Australia. Which I sincerely hope will not be delayed.”

Leadership commentary

Stang said the investment marks a major milestone in the company’s transition to commercial deployment.

“This investment represents a significant step for Lumitron as Hancock Prospecting joins our sophisticated investor base supporting the company’s transition from advanced development into commercial scale-up.”

“Hancock Prospecting is one of the world’s leading private mining and investment companies, with a long history of backing large-scale, globally significant projects, and its chairman, Gina Rinehart has a long term keen interest in helping patients suffering from cancer, so we are extremely pleased to have Mrs. Rinehart and her private company, on board as a strategic investor, and as a board member, and also adding 2 members to our technical committee.”

“We believe HyperVIEW™ represents one of the most significant advances in commercial X-ray and radiotherapy technology in more than a century, providing a new generation of imaging and therapy platforms.”

“Capabilities traditionally associated with large-scale research infrastructure are now being developed in a platform designed for broader clinical and industrial deployment.”

“We see substantial long-term opportunities across healthcare, mining, and advanced manufacturing applications as demand increases for more precise imaging, treatment, analysis and assay capability,” Mr. Stang said.

Professor Ian Plimer, who is also joining the technical review committee, noted, “Over many years, Mrs. Rinehart has actively supported patient care packages, breast cancer patient services, research initiatives and awareness campaigns, and led world-first initiatives including pink mining trucks, pink trains, pink mining equipment, pink whims plants, pink PPE and even some pink ships, to help raise awareness and support for those impacted by breast cancer and its associated cancers.”

“Indeed, it was Mrs. Rinehart who established Australia’s first dedicated breast cancer foundation and our nation’s first National Breast Cancer Day in the early 1990s.”

“We believe HyperVIEW™ represents a potentially generational advancement in imaging and radiotherapy capability, with the potential to support earlier detection, more precise treatment and better patient outcomes.”

“At the same time, we see very exciting opportunities for the technology across mining, manufacturing and scientific research, particularly as industries increasingly look for more advanced imaging, analysis and assay capabilities.”

“This investment will support and ensure the future rollout of advanced imaging and radiotherapy capability across Australia,” Prof Plimer concluded.

Click here or visit https://www.lumitronxrays.com/single-post/hancock-prospecting-backs-lumitron-to-advance-cance-therapy-tech to read full press release on the Lumitron Technologies website.

 

UC Irvine’s Dr. Zhongping Chen Receives Academic Senate’s Distinguished Senior Faculty Award for Research

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The UC Irvine Academic Senate has named Dr. Zhongping Chen, Professor of Biomedical Engineering and the Beckman Laser Institute & Medical Clinic, as a 2026-27 recipient of the Distinguished Senior Faculty Award for Research – one of the division’s highest honors. Selected by the Committee on Scholarly Honors and Awards, the recognition celebrates faculty members whose scholarship has left a defining mark on their field.

Established in 1975, the Distinguished Senior Faculty Award for Research is reserved for Academic Senate members who have made extraordinary contributions to their discipline, whether through a sustained, career-long record of scholarship or through a singular, influential body of work. Recipients are nominated by their colleagues, making the honor a particularly meaningful reflection of peer recognition.

Dr. Chen, Director of the UC Irvine Functional OCT Laboratory, has spent decades reshaping the landscape of biomedical imaging. He is widely recognized for his seminal role in developing optical coherence tomography (OCT), including advanced forms such as Doppler OCT and OCT angiography (OCTA). These technologies that have become indispensable in both research and clinical medicine. His innovations have enabled earlier and more precise diagnosis of serious conditions including glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and various cancers. By seamlessly integrating fundamental science, technological development, and clinical translation, Dr. Chen’s work has generated far-reaching impact across disciplines, from neuroscience to interventional cardiology.

Since joining Beckman Laser Institute & Medical Clinic in 1996, Dr. Chen has built a record of international distinction. Among his many accolades is the 2024 Michael S. Feld Biophotonics Award from Optica, and he holds fellowship status in Optica, the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, and the International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE). His prolific output spans more than 300 peer-reviewed publications and over 25 patents.

Dr. Chen will deliver the Distinguished Faculty Lecture at the 2026-27 Distinguished Faculty Awards Event in Winter 2027, where all honorees will be formally recognized. The ceremony will conclude with a reception celebrating their achievements.

Click here or visit https://bli.uci.edu/zhongpingchen to learn more about Dr. Zhongping Chen.

Click here or visit senate.uci.edu/distinguished-faculty-awards to learn more about the UC Irvine Academic Senate Distinguished Faculty Awards.

 

Lumitron Featured as Plenary Lecture at OPIC 2026

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Lumitron Featured as Plenary Lecture at OPIC 2026

On April 22, Lumitron’s co-founder and CTO, Dr. Chris Barty, presented one of three plenary lectures at this years Optics and Photonics International Congress (OPIC) in Yokohama, Japan.  OPIC and the associated Optics and Photonics International Exhibition (OPIE) brings together several thousand attendees annually spanning virtually all optics and photonics related industries and science.  Dr. Barty’s lecture introduced the core, patented, accelerator and laser technologies which enable HyperVIEW to x-ray image with micrometer-scale resolution and to electron-beam treat cancer in a fraction of a heartbeat.

https://www.lumitronxrays.com/single-post/lumitron-featured-as-plenary-lecture-at-opic-2026

Click here  or visit  https://www.lumitronxrays.com/single-post/lumitron-featured-as-plenary-lecture-at-opic-2026 to watch Dr. Barty’s presentation on the Lumitron Technologies website.

 

 

Gina Rinehart Invests $50 Million in Lumitron Technologies for High-Resolution Imaging in Mining and Cancer Detection

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June 25, 2026 at 7:03 AM GMT-7

Gina Rinehart, Australia’s richest person, is putting $50 million into Lumitron Technologies, a firm based in California, to bring to market a high-resolution imaging system that can be used for both mineral processing and detecting cancer. The funding, announced on June 25, 2026, aims to commercialize Lumitron’s HyperView very high-energy electron beam technology, which the company says offers up to 1,000 times the resolution of traditional X-ray systems. This imaging technology, designed for medical and industrial use, can help mining operations determine mineral composition, spot contaminants, and enable more selective processing of higher-grade ore. Rinehart noted that the system allows operators to focus on higher-value ore, boosting recovery rates while possibly cutting energy use and overall processing expenses.

Click here or visit https://www.indexbox.io/blog/gina-rinehart-invests-50-million-in-lumitron-technologies-for-high-resolution-imaging-in-mining-and-cancer-detection/ to read the full IndexBox announcement.