School of Neuroscience affiliated faculty Rafael Davalos, professor of biomedical engineering and mechanics at Virginia Tech, is one of several researchers from Virginia Tech and Wake Forest University to receive a $9.2 million grant for developing treatments for brain cancer.

“This project really does epitomize the strengths of the team,” said Rafael Davalos, a professor of biomedical engineering and mechanics at Virginia Tech who co-wrote the grant.

Davalos leads one of the four projects, with a technology that he created called electric field ablation. It sends nonthermal voltage into a cell’s protective membrane, identifying malignant cancer cells and killing them. Scott Verbridge, a tumor micro environment specialist and assistant professor of biomedical engineering and science at Virginia Tech, works with Davalos researching ways to identify and destroy only malignant cells, without harming healthy cells.

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