Fighting Cancer in a University Lab:
Dan Jordy at SUNY Binghamton
By Sybil Maimin
A college undergraduate getting an opportunity to work in
a lab with scientists developing a device to detect and monitor
cancer is exciting stuff. The stakes are even higher and the
experience more meaningful when the student has himself been
a victim of the disease. Dan Jordy, a senior at the State University
of New York in Binghamton, was diagnosed with testicular cancer
on Christmas Eve day in 2003. The cancer, one of the rarest
overall, is the most common form of the disease in young men.
An athlete, he consulted a physician when he recognized symptoms
similar to those he had read about on the sports pages concerning
Lance Armstrong, the well known cyclist. Surgery and four rounds
of chemotherapy forced Jordy to drop out of school for a semester,
but during that time he managed to complete two courses over
the Internet and now has just about caught up with his classmates.
A mechanical engineering major, Jordy explains that engineering
is often used to solve biological problems. Machinery as well
as pills is critical in the health field, examples being dialysis
units and hearing aids. In fact, Binghamton recently began
offering a degree in the subspecialty of bio-engineering.
In the lab, Jordy worked
with mechanical engineering professors Harold Ackler and
Timothy Singler of Binghamton’s Thomas
J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science, who are
attempting to create a small device that would separate out
cancer cells in the blood for immediate analysis, making diagnosis
and treatment quicker and easier. The mechanism would be portable,
making blood work possible at a patient’s bedside rather
than in a distant laboratory. Much of the technology is already
known; the challenge is integrating many separate functions
into one system. A finished product is still in drawing board
stage and Jordy quickly learned that research is “interesting,
lots of hard work and results do not come quickly.” Besides
his intelligence (Jordy will be graduating with a 4.0 GPA),
the young student believes his illness encouraged the professors
to have faith in him, “Knowing I’d gone through
it helped. They knew I’d be committed to the task.” To
him, the project “felt more meaningful. I know how people
feel going through the treatment. It was nice to know if this
worked out, I’d be helping someone.”
Jordy is a runner and is on the cross-country and track teams.
Similar to academic adjustments necessitated by the drop out
for treatment, he had to restart his athletic training and
slowly rebuild strength. A well-spoken, focused young man,
he is tenacious, courageous, modest, and mature. The strong
support of professors, coaches, teammates, and classmates has
undoubtedly helped him through his ordeal. He cites the relative
small size of the engineering school and the comraderie that
characterizes the teams and class as having been important
contributors to his recovery.#
