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Apr 5, 2011

Carbon Nanotubes Used To Detect Cancer Cells

Cancer's not slowing its march to ruining as many lives as it possibly can, so it's always pleasing to hear of any new developments that act as hurdles. The latest in the world of disease-prevention comes fromHarvard University, where researches have created a dime-sized carbon nanotube forest (read: lots of nanotubes, like those shown above) that can be used to trap cancer cells when blood passes through. A few years back, Mehmet Toner, a biomedical engineering professor at Harvard, created a device similar to the nano-forest that was less effective because silicon was used instead of carbon tubes. Today, Toner has teamed up with Brian Wardle, associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT, who together have redesigned the original microfluid device to work eight times more efficiently than its predecessor. The carbon nanotubes make diagnosis a fair bit simpler, largely because of the antibodies attached to them that help trap cancer cells as they pass through -- something that's being tailored to work with HIV as well. Things are starting to look moderately promising for cancer-stricken individuals, as hospitals have already began using the original device to detect malignant cells and ultimately prevent them from spreading -- here's hoping it's qualified for mass adoption sooner rather than later.

13 comments:

Candlej- said...

the advances people are making are just incredible



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aikino said...

Nanotechnology is definitely the next revolution.In a few decades (or hopefully less) when we take full advantage of the possibilites we will we able to do things we can´t even imagine today.

frameaj1 said...

This is great hopefully it leads to a huge step to curing cancer.

Nope said...

Technology advancements are going to finally cure these major issues people have been unable to cure. Specifically nanotechnology.

Guy Movie Blogger said...

Nanotechnology is always crazy to read about. I'm betting that the stuff we'll see derived from this tech in thirty years will be mind blowing!

Jay said...

i'm not sure how this works, but kudos to the researchers!

ExoticBlogger said...

very cool advancement.

Kontingency said...

very interesting. this might just save thousands of lives maybe even my own at some point

spaceman said...

I hope something good is actually done with this...

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Brandon Sample said...

that sounds pretty baller jeeves

David said...

That sounds really awesome. I'm glad advances are being made in the fight against cancer.

Pseudonachrichten said...

nice story bro

Styron said...

only interested if they find a way to live forever