Future long range space missions will require innovative emergency medical procedures and techniques for the treatment of serious injuries in space. Photothearpy and Photochemotherapy have disclosed advances in Photodynamic therapy research that will lead the way to innovative treatment for Prolonged Immune Suppression, Osteoprosis during space flight and trauma burn treatment. Autologous bone marrow transplants are a method of Extracorporeal Photochemotherapy that rids marrow grafts of harmful tumor cells. patients are administered a photosensitive drug which attaches itself to the harmful tumor cells, then the bone marrow is extracted from the body. Irradiating the drug causes it to activate, terminating the tumor cells. This method of bone marrow purging has shown great promise as a treatment for cancer. However, issues have surfaced about the high cost of replacement lamps, heat dissipation, and the broad band light source currently being used. Recent advancements in semiconductor technology , developed for NASA's long term space missions, has led to the development of an economical LED-based reusable system that could be designed to meet the requirements for light assisted purging of marrow grafts. Resulting in reduced cost and improved availability of this life saving therapy to a greater number of patients. Commercial Applications:QDI is confident in the market potential of a commercially viable LED-based lighting system that could be used to activate a photosensitive dyes, such as Merocynanine 540,for for bone marrow purging. In addition QDI intends to aggressively pursue the sale of the LED source in other areas that will include the use of other photosensitive dyes to treat diseases such as, Psoriasis, vitiligo, herpetic skin and eye lesions, selected solid tumors, and, more recently, the treatment of warts, graft-vs.-host diseases (GvHD), cutaneous T cell lymphoma, Chronic lymphocytic leukemia, Rheumatoid arthritis, Multiple sclerosis, pemphigus, and progressive systemic sclerosis, the prevention of graft rejection and GvHD in recipients of tissue or organ transplants, and the inactivation of viruses in blood products.
