near-infrared laser tagged posts

Georgia Tech’s Regents Professor Mostafa El-Sayed (front) is one of the most highly decorated and cited living chemists. With his team for this research from left to right: Yue Wu, Professor Ronghu Wu, and Yan Tang. Credit: Georgia Tech / Christopher Moore

Researchers have found a way to virtually halt cell migration, a key component in metastasis, in vitro, in human cells. In past in vivo studies in mice, treated cancer did not appear to recur. No significant side effects were observed. Cancer cells often cover themselves bristly leg-like protrusions that enable them to creep. The researchers have used minuscule gold rods heated gently by a laser to mangle the protrusions, according to a new study.

The treatment can also easily kill cancer cells, but in this experiment, it was vital to sp...

In the Dionne lab at Stanford, a laser causes nanoparticles suspended in cyclohexane to emit light. The nanoparticles change color depending on the pressure around them and give real-time information about the forces they undergo. Credit: Alice Lay

Millimeter-long worms digesting a nanoparticle-laced meal of their favorite bacteria could eventually lead to a new way to see cellular forces at play within our own bodies, including processes like wound healing and cancer growth. The key is that these particular nanoparticles glow when struck by a near-infrared laser and change color depending on the pressure around them. So, they can give off real-time information about the forces they’re undergoing while they’re still inside the worm.

“Altered cellular-level forces underlie many disorders, i...