Thursday, May 14, 2009

MIT Research: Monitoring Cancer Tumor Growth


MIT students are having so much fun with research these days. Nanotechnology has taken biomedical research to an entirely new level. In many ways, this research reminds me of my days at MIT when I was involved in some biomedical cancer research. I was working on biopsy needles that involved hyperthermia treatment, but this story is about an implantable device that continuously monitors how a malignant tumor responds to treatment. Researchers at MIT engineered a tiny cylindrical, 5-millimeter implant that contains magnetic nanoparticles coated with antibodies. Can you do that?

Lead author of the research paper (published in Biosensors & Bioelectronics) is Karen Daniel, a recent MIT PhD recipient. Other authors are recent PhD recipients Grace Kim (not related - as far as I know) and Christophoros Vassiliou; Marilyn Galindo, research affiliate in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology; Alexander Guimares, a radiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital; Ralph Weissleder, a professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School; Al Charest, visiting assistant professor of biology at MIT; and David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research Professor Robert Langer.

The research was funded by the National Cancer Institute Centers of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence and the National Science Foundation. Image source: MIT news site.

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