Black female physicist makes developments in cancer treatment

Ora Lee was diagnosed with cancer and refused chemotherapy.

"She refused the treatment because she didn't want to experience the side effects. It was heartbreaking, but I could appreciate she wanted to die on her own terms," Green told AL.com. "Three months later, my uncle was diagnosed with cancer."

While caring for her uncle, Green saw the toll that chemotherapy took on him.

"I saw firsthand how devastating it was, and I could understand why my aunt didn't want to go through that," she said.

Green got a full scholarship to the University of Alabama at Birmingham after completing her bachelor's degree.

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While at UAB, Green developed the idea of using lasers to treat cancer cells. She got a $1.1 million grant to work on the technology.

Green is one of the few black female physicists in the U.S. There are less than 100 in a field dominated by white men.

"I'm really hoping this can change the way we treat cancer in America. There are so many people who only get a 3-month or 6-month survival benefit from the drugs they take. Then 3 or 6 months later, they're sent home with no hope, nothing else we can do," Green said. "Those are the patients I want to try to save, the ones where regular medicine isn't effective for them."

The laser treatment is set to work with an FDA-approved drug that would be injected into a cancer patient. The drug would cause the tumor to glow and be seen by imaging equipment. The laser would activate nanoparticles in the drug by heating them, which would target only the cancerous cells, not healthy ones.

"They are not toxic, so without the laser they won't kill anything, and the laser by itself is harmless, so without the particles it won't hurt anything," Green said. "Because of their need to work together and their inability to work apart, I can ensure that the treatment is only happening to the cancer cells we target and identify."

Although Green is not the first to utilize laser treatment for cancer, she successfully worked out nanoparticle delivery and has had success with the treatment in mice.

"As a physicist I've created a physical treatment that is not specific to the biology of the cancer," she said. "It's not cancer type-specific, though it can treat the cancer specifically."

Green feels a responsibility to challenge the media's representation of black women.

"There are black female scientists who don't get media exposure. Because of that, young black girls don't see those role models as often as they see Beyonce or Nicki Minaj," she said. "It's important to know that our brains are capable of more than fashion and entertainment and music, even though arts are important."

And for all her accomplishments, Green acknowledges those who helped her.

"It takes a village to raise a child," she said. "A village of people helped raise me and instill values in me, and encouraged me to get to this point. I did not get here by myself."