Nigerian Man Won US Award For Inventing Goggles That Can See Cancerous Cells

by Abbey Lily March 29, 2017

written by Abbey Lily March 29, 2017

Nigeria is indeed blessed with talents, not only are Nigerians fashionable but there are lots of intelligent people in their differnet fields.

Recently, a Nigerian man by the name Samuel Achilefu based in the US was awarded for inventing a goggle that can help surgeons see canxerous cells.

Though his childhood memories are filled with disturbing scenes from the Biafra war and the loss of wealth has made a name for himself in the eradication of cancer all over the world. And to think that such tremendous work came from a Nigerian is truly amazing.

According to smeonline.biz, Achilefu had his primary and secondary education in some local schools in Nigeria.

However, he was lucky enough to have been one of the five students who won a French government scholarship and this made him attend a graduate school in France where he received a PhD in molecular and materials chemistry at the University of Nancy.

Achilefu made his family and Nigeria proud with his activities outside the country.

While talking on the greatest breakthrough in the battle against cancer, the Nigerian genius said “We are working in the dark, so that we can see the light…therefore, there is no darkeness unless you cannot see the light.”

At the moment, he is the chief of Optical Radiology Laboratory and a professor of radiology at the Washington University School of Medicine. He has designed high tech goggles that will help surgeons see and identify cancer cells which are pretty difficult to see during surgery.

With the use of the invented goggles, the cancerous cells glow blue; this will help doctors ensure that there is no tumor cell left during and after the operation.

Due to this brilliant invention; Achilefu in January 2015 got the St.Louis award which is always doled out every year since 1932. The award is to recognize area residents whose hard-work and achievements has made positive impacts in the community.

The Nigerian genius with his wife and children.

Achilefu, his wife and children

Achilefu who got married to his wife twenty-one years ago was also recognized for leading the team that developed the high-tech goggles that will help surgeons see cancer.

The father of two is not stopping at this as he has the intention of inventing a light-based cancer therapy that can help in reaching tumors in deep tissue.

“I want to play a role in eradicating cancer or making it a manageable disease. Toward this goal, we have developed a new approach to kill cancer cells, independent of the cancer type.

“There is a method of killing cancer with light – photodynamic therapy. People use it to treat superficial cancers, such as skin cancer, because the cancer has to be reachable by light to activate a light-sensitive drug. Or you can use an endoscope to introduce light to activate and kill cancer cells inside the body.

“We’ve discovered a new approach of using existing radiopharmaceuticals to create a light source within the tumor cells. We have tested this concept with success in animal models of cancer and plan to move into human studies in future.”

Nigerian Man Won US Award For Inventing Goggles That Can See Cancerous Cells