Tucson Now spotlights Jennifer Barton's falloposcope
Jennifer Barton shows a tiny microscope that could one day be used to diagnose endometriosis.
Jennifer Barton, Thomas R. Brown Distinguished Chair of Biomedical Engineering, spoke with Devyn Shae on Tucson Now about applications for her endoscope design that could improve women’s health. The device, which is about the size of a sewing needle, can fit inside fallopian tubes to collect high-resolution imagery.
Barton was awarded $3 million from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to apply this technology to the diagnosis of endometriosis.
In the interview, Barton discusses how the need for more timely diagnoses of conditions like endometriosis and ovarian cancer motivated her work. The eventual goal, she said, is for women to be able to undergo a quick inpatient procedure to screen for ovarian cancer, endometriosis or other conditions early.
Barton also recognized her collaborators at the University of Arizona and physicians at both Banner Health in Tucson and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas.
“It takes a team,” said Barton. “You just can’t tackle a problem of this difficulty without a team.”