Creates biolom, nanotechnology detector of cancers at early stages
Creates firm, Massachusetts governor awards him entrepreneurship prize


Engineer Dr Asanterabi Malima

Engineer Dr Asanterabi Malima, son of former cabinet minister and leading economist, the late Prof. Kighoma Malima, is making headlines of his own neither in economics nor in politics.

Dr Malima, a graduate of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and now a postdoctoral researcher in the Northeastern University Center for high rate manufacturing in nanotechnology in the United States, has discovered a disease diagnostic tool that can detect diseases in their early stages.

A report posted at News@ Northeastern that was later shared by the Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH) to the local media said Dr Malima’s passion was always to develop some kind of technology to diagnose diseases earlier.

As he continued with his studies, this vision became a reality when in 2012 together with his fellow Northeastern alumni Cihan Yilmaz, PhD of the 2013 doctoral class and Jaydev Upponi, of the previous year’s class, graduates of the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, and the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences respectively, designed a device known as Biolom.

Their device is smaller than a pinhead and has the capacity to diagnose a variety of diseases at their earliest stages.

After this, they started a biotechnology firm to commercialize the device they developed at the center under the guidance of the centre’s director, Prof. Ahmed Busnaina, the William Lincoln Smith Chair and professor in the College of Engineering.

The biolom device consists of four distinct areas, each optimized to detect a specific biomarker indicating different types of cancer or cardiovascular disease.

“With cervical cancer, a device like this could be invaluable for its ability to quickly and inexpensively improve diagnoses when the cancer is first taking root,” the report reads in part.

The team originally developed the device to detect colorectal cancer, but it pivoted to focus on liver cancer after an exhaustive field survey of clinicians, researchers and members of the pharmaceutical industry, it said.

Dr Malima’s work has received significant recognition. In June, as part of activities of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) activities to mark Africa Week, State Governor Deval Patrick presented the Tanzanian scientist with the state Entrepreneurial Award, honoring his contribution to the state’s economic well-​being and vitality.

“Not only does Biolom promise to improve the health and job prospects of the state’s residents, but it also has the potential to cure disease in dr Malima’s native Tanzania, where cervical cancer is prevalent,” the report underlined.

“In more than 50 percent of the patients that have tumors, they are missed,” Dr Malima remarked, noting that the reason is that the biomarker that clinicians typically use to monitor for the disease doesn’t reach meaningful concentrations until a tumor has grown to significant size. “Usually once somebody develops symptoms, he or she only has about nine to 12 months to live,” the scientist was quoted as telling News@ Northeastern.

But, he says, there are other approaches to detecting liver cancer, namely two other less-​​often used biomarkers. The team decided to reconfigure its device to be able to detect all three biomarkers simultaneously. The approach, he said, is expected to bring clinical sensitivity from 50 to 90 percent when the combination of biomarkers is used.

Along the way, Biolom has received support from the Center for Research Innovation, the Health Sciences Entrepreneurs program, and IDEA Northeastern’s student-​​run venture accelerator which provided mentoring as well as gap funding to support the clinical validation studies that are now underway.

He said starting a company brought with it its own set of unique challenges, quite distinct from those of any engineering problem that dr Malima had as yet encountered.

“I never thought of myself as an entrepreneur,” Dr Malima intoned. He expected to be the brains in the background, quietly tinkering away at large firms like Toshiba, where he worked for several months before pursuing his graduate education at Northeastern.

Instead he’s working at the cutting edge of an industry that promises to change the face of disease diagnosis as we know it.

Dr Malima is quoted as having said that everyone in his family was in politics and therefore people who knew him the country expected he would keep with the “family business” (politics) “but my father’s early passing set me on a different course.”

“My passion was always to develop some kind of technology to diagnose diseases earlier, to come up with something that wouldn’t save my father, since he’d already passed away, but may save somebody else’s parent,” Dr Malima said.

The Guardian on Sunday tried to reach his brother Adam Malima, the Deputy Minister for Finance to get a word from him as to the US exploits of his younger brother and the feeling in the family but in vain.

News@ Northeastern only stated that Asanterabi Malima’s father died aged 57 when Asanterabi was 15 years old. The late minister was not named directly in the report but it said that he was “an accomplished scholar and served as minister in the Tanzanian government.”

Speaking with The Guardian on Sunday yesterday, Dr. Flora Tibazarwa, the director of Life Science at the Tanzania Commission of Science and Technology (COSTECH) and acting director general said COSTECH was aware of Dr Malima’s discovery.

COSTECH was ready to link him with local research institutions for trials after which they will see what can be done at the local level, not that Dr Malima had formed an enterprise in the US for the purpose.

“We have the reports about Dr Malima’s success but as of now we cannot say much as the discovery has not gone through trials and publishing of clinical results, but it is really good news,” she said.

Any success in discovery is a step ahead in dealing with major diseases like cancer, she said, noting that COSTECH signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Northeastern Center for High Rate Nanomanufacturing, where Dr Malima is currently attached to.

The MoU would enable COSTECH to assist the researcher if and when he would be carrying out projects in the country, the director added.

SOURCE: GUARDIAN ON SUNDAY