Health care
BY DUSTIN BUTLER
Health Care Guide
2025
Readers, welcome to your annual CI Health Care Edition. It’s that time of year again where we here at Community Impact dig into the health care stories in your backyard. Make sure to check out our front page story about Methodist Richardson Medical Center’s upcoming $22 million operating room and surgery center upgrades. The edition also features other area health care updates, including a closer look at University of Texas at Dallas’ EMS program. All stories were written and curated by our local team of reporters, and all of the advertisements are from nearby businesses who support our mission. Enjoy!
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What's inside
Check in on the latest hospital updates in and near Richardson (Page 11)
Methodist Richardson working on $22 million OR project (Page 12)
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UT Dallas researchers develop light-activated cancer therapy
Researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas in Richardson, led by bioengineering associate professor Dr. Girgis Obaid, are partnering with UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers to develop a light-activated therapy meant to target stomach cancer. Obaid said the therapy shows potential treating advanced stomach cancer and uses photody- namic therapy to kill cancer cells. The treatment could also activate the patient’s immune system, potentially enhancing the e ectiveness of exist- ing treatments and reducing severe side e ects associated with conventional chemotherapy. How it works Obaid said a lab-designed protein, called betabodies and developed at UT Southwestern, are used to target cancer cells. The protein only targets cancer cells and once exposed to light, creates a toxin that kills the cells. In addition, it is engineered to activate the
immune system once the cancer cells die to “wake up” the body’s natural defenses to attack any remaining cancer cells, Obaid said. “These molecules behave in a way that’s similar to plants,” he said. “They absorb light energy and convert it into chemical reactions.” The therapy di ers from traditional chemother- apy, which kills both health and cancerous cells, leading to signi cant side e ects. This light-activated therapy o ers two levels of targeting: the engineered protein directs the drug speci cally to cancer tissue, and the light activa- tion ensures that the drug is only active where the light is applied. Measuring the impact The therapy is in the early stage of development Obaid said, and researchers are currently testing it in lab settings and on mice. It is currently funded by a $250,000 grant from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas.
Dr. Girgis Obaid leads a team of researchers in developing a light-activated cancer therapy meant to kill cancer cells and activate the body’s immune system.
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