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Tuesday, 3rd February 2009 (1468 views)

Gold is playing a role in the attempts by one US-based biopharmaceutical company to change the ways cancer is treated.

According to Genetic Engineering and Biology News, CytImmune Sciences is using the precious metal as part of nanotechnology research into cancer treatment, with colloidal gold particles helping scientists to deliver drugs safely into the human body.

The company first began developing techniques for using the yellow metal as a drug delivery method in the 1990s and has since collected over 60 actual and pending patents for its colloidal gold nanotechnology.

Co-founder, president and chief executive of the company Lawrence Tamarkin explained that the firm's work will help to introduce a new method for treating the disease.

"Our technology is designed to treat cancer medically first and then surgically intervene, thus reducing hospital stays and costs and improving the quality of life of the cancer patient," he stated.

Similar research is underway at the University of Texas, where scientists are using gold to create nanospheres, which can detect and destroy melanoma cells with the help of infrared light.

 

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