Physicists Kill Cancer With 'Nanobubbles'

[The Straight Story]

Physicists Kill Cancer With 'Nanobubbles'

ScienceDaily (Feb. 5, 2010) — Using lasers and nanoparticles, scientists at Rice University have discovered a new technique for singling out individual diseased cells and destroying them with tiny explosions. The scientists used lasers to make "nanobubbles" by zapping gold nanoparticles inside cells. In tests on cancer cells, they found they could tune the lasers to create either small, bright bubbles that were visible but harmless or large bubbles that burst the cells.

"Single-cell targeting is one of the most touted advantages of nanomedicine, and our approach delivers on that promise with a localized effect inside an individual cell," said Rice physicist Dmitri Lapotko, the lead researcher on the project. "The idea is to spot and treat unhealthy cells early, before a disease progresses to the point of making people extremely ill."

The research is available online in the journal Nanotechnology.

Nanobubbles are created when gold nanoparticles are struck by short laser pulses. The short-lived bubbles are very bright and can be made smaller or larger by varying the power of the laser. Because they are visible under a microscope, nanobubbles can be used to either diagnose sick cells or to track the explosions that are destroying them.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100204204438.htm

[Mari333]

1. fcking brilliant...will BIG PHARMA allow this to go forward???

[glinda]

2. No. Are U kidding? Anything for their own profit protection.

[meegbear]

3. Once they corner the gold market, they will

[DemoTex]

5. Bio-reseachers: BEWARE

Verb sap!

[MercutioATC]

11. Why not?

They'll own the process.

[trotsky]

14. Gee, no, I'm sure they would much rather let people die earlier from cancer...

than help them live a much longer life and become a LONG-TERM customer.

Jeebus, the stupid... it burns.

[Mari333]

15. you arent being very nice

and you dont read sarcasm very well.
now, I have to put you on ignore, for my own mental health and well being.

[trotsky]

16. What was the point of the sarcasm?

Do you think "big pharma" medicines save more lives than they harm? Or do you think that "big pharma" gets together in their boardrooms and, while rubbing their hands together and chanting "MUAH HA HA HA", plot a way to MURDER everyone on earth?

Ah well, I guess I won't get an answer. You just wanted to bash something and didn't like getting confronted with facts.

[FLDCVADem]

4. Outstanding news

I hope it shows real promise in practical terms.

[The Straight Story]

6. More and more I see the world becoming more like Star Trek

Which is a good thing :)

[FLDCVADem]

7. Yep

Last night, ny daughter was on her webcam, conversing with her friend. I turned to my husband and reminided him that when we went to Disney World in 1991, we saw the "future" in the Carousel of Progress, and kids were doing just that.

Funny our future then is now.

[The Straight Story]

8. If we don't kill ourselves off with war and such, we have a promising future as a species (nt)

[Jamastiene]

9. Hmmm....so THAT's why all those late night tv people are buying everyone's gold. n/t

[opihimoimoi]

10. COOL

[mzmolly]

12. Awesome!

:D

[Juche]

13. I worked on something similar in college

We were making devices designed to undergo neutron capture to kill cells in a nearby area.

Basically, it seems there are dozens of ideas coming out following a formula

1. Create small particles
2. Get them to attach to cancer cells but not healthy cells
3. Get them to kill the cancer cells

There are tons of ways to do this. Radio waves, nuclear reactions, chemicals, light, etc.

I hope something comes out of it. So many labs are working on so many ways to do this, it should work and hit the market.