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Tuesday, 26th August 2008 (839 views)

Scientists are working on ways to use gold nanorods in the fight against cancer.

Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are developing new methods of using the minuscule cylinders of gold for medicine.

The nanorods are ten billionths of a metre wide and 40 billionths of a metre long. They are different from gold nanoparticles, which are also widely studied as a means of fighting cancer, as they can absorb infrared light.

Theoretically, they can be activated by an infrared laser without damaging surrounding cells. However, scientists must figure out how to deal with the CTAB molecule, a by-product of the process, before they can put theory into practice.

Assistant professor Kimberly Hamad-Schifferli said: "The surface chemistry is really key to everything … for all of these nifty applications to work, someone's got to sit down and do the work of understanding the surface."

MIT conducts a large amount of research into nanotechnology - over 1,100 people recently attended its seminar titled Nanotechnology and Cancer: The Power of Small Science.

 

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