Associate Professor Majid Ebrahimi Warkiani
University of Technology Sydney
Research Field: Cancer Research
Cancer is a devastating and silent disease that kills more than 50,000 people annually in Australia. If detected early, more than 90% of human cancers can be treated successfully. However early detection of cancer currently relies on an invasive procedure, where a biopsy is surgically removed from a tumour.
Majid Warkiani leads a team developing patient-friendly and innovative methods to better detect and treat cancer, including a non-invasive diagnostic called the ‘liquid biopsy’ to identify cancerous cells in the blood earlier than biopsies.
Majid and his team aim to improve quality of life for people with late-stage cancer by eliminating the need for harsh chemotherapy or radiation therapies in the treatment of cancer.
They have developed a filtration system similar to a kidney dialysis machine to filter cancer cells from patients’ blood and slow the spread of cancer to other parts of the body.
A/Prof Warkiani promotes STEM subjects at university open days, runs workshops on 3D printing for students and their families and has promoted nanotechnology to high school groups through scientific museum exhibits in Sydney and Singapore.
Associate Professor Majid Ebrahimi Warkiani was awarded his PhD in 2012 by the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore and is currently Associate Professor, School of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Technology, Sydney.