About
In December 2018, Dr. Smothers completed his Bachelor’s degree in Applied Physics at Coastal Carolina University and began his Master’s degree in Bioengineering at Clemson University in August 2019 under Dr. Brian Booth. He developed an instrument capable of delivering tumor-treating fields to cells in vitro as a novel radiotherapy for triple-negative breast cancer treatment. He then continued participating in this research for his doctorate under Drs. Delphine Dean and Brian Booth, where he optimized the treatment efficacy of this modality by implementing frequency modulation and also showed synergy between tumor-treating fields and platinum-based chemotherapies. He finished his Master’s degree in August 2021 and his doctorate in May 2023. Also during this time, beginning in September 2020, he was hired as a graduate laboratory technician for the Research and Education in Disease Diagnosis and Intervention (REDDI) Laboratory, where he participated in research for saliva-based detection of respiratory infections, primarily for COVID-19 testing. We developed a real-time PCR strategy for presumptively identifying individual strains for COVID-positive patients, as well as a salivabased multiplex test for simultaneous detection of SARS-CoV-2 and influenza. Now, he helps oversee the REDDI Lab as the Director of Strategic Operations alongside Drs. Delphine Dean and Congyue Annie Peng, and continue to spearhead tumor-treating field research alongside Dr. Booth.
Visit Dr. Smothers's Faculty Profile.
How their research is transforming health care
Our efforts in tumor-treating fields research show the potential for mitigating negative biological side effects of traditional radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatments by adopting low-energy, oscillating electric fields as a substitute. This work was originally investigated by Kirson et al. for glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) beginning in 2004 and has since gone through clinical trials and been commercialized as the NovoTTF-100A through NovoCure, Ltd. However, we expanded this work by applying it to triple-negative breast cancer with promising results. We also optimized this form of treatment by implementing frequency modulation, rather than using a uniform wave function. With a strong increase in treatment efficacy, this new treatment modality is now being reapplied to GBM under the leadership of Dr. John O’Connell, a radiooncologist at Prisma Health Cancer Institute. We believe these breakthroughs will make tumor-treating fields the established “4th modality” in traditional cancer treatment. At the REDDI Lab, our development of saliva-based diagnostic techniques allows us to provide fast and affordable testing for infectious diseases to underserved populations in our surrounding communities. This is being done alongside Dr. Caitlin Moore at Clemson Rural Health as well as Dr. Lesslie Pekarek with Redfern Health Center. We believe that providing fast and affordable testing will help mitigate the spread of disease and prevent future outbreaks.
News and related media
The REDDI Lab has our own center website - https://www.clemson.edu/centers-institutes/reddilab/index.html where we have done many local TV station interviews, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research we currently participate in is largely related to and based upon the work we did during this time. The REDDI Lab also holds an annual research symposium which partnered with USCSOMG to collaborate with physicians, fellows, and residents - https://ghscme.ethosce.com/content/2024- reddi-lab-research-symposium.
Health Research Expertise Keywords
Cancer, breast cancer, triple-negative, radiotherapy, tumor treating fields, electric fields, chemotherapy, SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19, infection, infectious disease, respiratory, PCR, diagnosis, diagnostics, therapeutics, theranostics, clinical
