Austin Graybeal, Ph.D. ’21, assistant professor of kinesiology in TCU’s Harris College of Nursing & Health Sciences, spoke with Fox 4’s Shaun Rabb about his latest project to expand access to breast cancer screening in rural and underserved communities in Texas.
During the interview, Graybeal discussed earning the university its first Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) award for this research and his project, called the breast cancer risk image-generated health tool (BRIGHT), which will help predict breast density and encourage more people to get mammograms for early breast cancer detection, all done on a smartphone.
“How many people have a smartphone on them right now? Virtually everyone,” Graybeal said. “So, if you can have something like this application right at the palm of your hand, then you can at least get some information about breast density, and then ideally some educational tools on what that means that are specifically for you, and not just a broad generalization.”
The $250,000 CPRIT grant will help Graybeal continue his research and development of the mobile 3D imaging technology, BRIGHT, for early risk detection for breast cancer.