Brain cancer such as glioblastoma, medulloblastoma, DIPG and breast cancer brain metastasis currently have no cure. This is notwithstanding an intensive standard of treatment that comprises surgery, drugs, radiation, and immunotherapies. Hence, there is an urgent need to develop novel therapeutic modalities.

NCB lab has developed the technology of wireless subcellular-sized brain implants that can be remotely controlled with electromagnetic fields to provide spatio-temporally precise, novel nano-bioelectronic therapies. For this technology, the National Institute of Health has awarded us the NIH Director's New Innovator Award with a perfect and rarely achieved impact score. We achieved an impact score of “10”—the highest score possible. Building on this technology, we are pursuing a bold new approach, to treat brain cancer where traditional therapies have failed. We have established rodent models for different brain cancers in our lab using patient derived biological samples from hospitals. Our technology shows promise in our preclinical studies in treating brain cancer which are even resistant to drugs and radiation.

This technology has the potential to significantly increase overall survival of brain cancer patients, and it will be affordable to people across the diverse socioeconomic spectrum.

We received the Sontag Foundation Distinguished Scientist Award (one of the 3 awardees nationwide and only awardee from MIT within last decade) for our work.

Relevant talks

Deblina Sarkar, "Transcending humans beyond diseases and biological limitations", MIT Future Worlds Workshop, October 2023

Deblina Sarkar, "Curing the Incurable: Radical Therapeutics for Neurodegenerative Diseases to Refractory Cancer", MIT Future Therapeutics Workshop, October 2023

Deblina Sarkar, “Women's Health: Novel Treatment for Alzheimer's Disease to Breast Cancer Brain Metastases”, MIT Women’s health Innovation forum, October 2023

Deblina Sarkar presented the NCB group research overview at the MIT Media Lab Members' Week, October 2023

Deblina Sarkar, "Seamless fusion: Transcending humans beyond biological limitations" TEDxBoston, May, 2023