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Monday, 23rd April 2007 (4548 views)

A molecular nose has been made which uses gold nanoparticles to sniff out the proteins made by sickly cells, which could go some way towards diagnosing cancer.

Scientists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst are using the gold sensors to produce a molecular nose which can detect many different kinds of proteins, including ones made by so-called sickly cells.

"The goal is to make a sensor that works like the cancer-sniffing dogs we have been hearing about in the news," said Vincent Rotello, the chemist leading the research.

The nose uses a number of receptors to interpret and identify varying smells so that the fingerprint of toxic proteins is spotted easily. This is a distinct method of spotting the cells which could potentially be more reliable than he techniques currently used.

At the moment, doctors rely on specific receptors which bind to specific proteins but this technique is expensive and inefficient.

The new nose may become widely used for detecting not just cancer, but also other diseases.

 

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