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Wednesday, 15th April 2009 (1152 views)

Nanotechnology incorporating the use of gold could help to revolutionise cancer treatment methods, it has been suggested.

According to Nanowerk News, a number of researchers are using nanoparticles as a means to deliver drugs to cancer cells, or as imaging and therapy agents.

One such group of scientists is based at the University of Missouri, where it was recently discovered that bombesin peptide can be used to deliver nanorods made from the precious metal to specific tumour cells.

"We have demonstrated that our gold nanorod-bombesin conjugate can internalize within GRP receptor expressing tumour cells," researcher Raghuraman Kannan told the news source.

The technique can have "realistic clinical applications", he added.

Another area where gold is helping to further research is that of quantum computing,

The news source recently reported that the precious metal has been used by physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology to help create a new ion trap that could be used to create computers more powerful than those currently available.

 

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