Baylor College of Medicine in Houston has announced a $3 million grant from the Marcus Foundation to further develop and validate technology to aid in breast cancer surgeries.

The gift will support researchers in the Eberlin Lab for Medical Mass Spectrometry to advance development of the MasSpec Pen device, created by Dr. Livia Eberlin and colleagues, for intraoperative use and surgical guidance. To help guide resection in breast cancer and other cancer surgeries, the technology enables ex vivo and in vivo tissue identification in seconds based on molecular analysis. Eberlin Lab successfully implemented the tool in a pilot clinical study at Baylor, and the grant will help researchers enter a new phase of clinical testing, using the technology intraoperatively for breast tissue analysis, surgical margin evaluation, and ultimately to determine how it performs in comparison to the current clinical approach.

“When I met Dr. Eberlin and understood how the MasSpec Pen could help surgeons and ultimately impact patient lives, it was an easy yes to support the expansion of this innovative tool,” said Marcus Foundation chair and Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus, who became a Giving Pledge signatory in 2010. “It’s absolutely brilliant technology.”

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