Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) today announced that  has received an Agilent Thought Leader Award in recognition of her innovative work using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy technology in cancer research. Dr. Mountford is a professor of radiology at , and Harvard Medical School. She is the director of  and director of the Center for Clinical Spectroscopy at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. The award will support Dr. Mountford and her team at the University of Newcastle in their pioneering research on novel in vivo NMR techniques that may help identify breast cancer in high-risk women. Preliminary data suggest that NMR may detect early changes in breast tissue that reflect rapid tumor growth. Moreover, NMR may be used to analyze primary breast tumors to determine if the cancer cells have spread to the lymph nodes, preventing unnecessary surgery. "NMR spectroscopy is a highly accurate and precise tool for analyzing human tissue," said Dr. Mountford. "This technology could help pathologists diagnose breast cancer more quickly and accurately, enable surgeons to make more informed decisions and, ultimately, improve the quality of cancer care for patients." "Agilent is committed to facilitating solutions for personalized medicine, and we are excited to support Dr. Carolyn Mountford and her team in their quest to develop NMR-based screening techniques," said Regina Schuck, Ph.D., vice president and general manager of Agilent's Research Products Division. "If successful, these NMR strategies may well revolutionize the field of cancer research." Dr. Mountford and her team are using , the , and NMR probes and software at a new state-of-the-art NMR imaging center at . The new facility features the most advanced scanning technology in the Southern Hemisphere.

The Agilent Thought Leader Award promotes fundamental scientific advances by contributing financial support, products and expertise to the research of influential thought leaders in the life sciences and chemical analysis space. Information about previous award recipients is available at Agilent's Thought Leader Program website.