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Discovery News (July 31, 2008) By binding magnetic nanoparticles to human ovarian cancer cells, researchers at Georgia Tech can make the cancerous cells rise to the skin surface by simply passing a magnet over them. “In principle this technique could be applied to any pathogen that is found in the blood stream,” said John McDonald, a scientist at Georgia Tech and coauthor of the paper that appeared in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. The beauty of the experiment, according to McDonald, is the nanoparticles’ affinity for ovarian cancer cells. “The strength of the binding has to be very strong so when you pull the particles with a magnet they don’t just fall off,” said McDonald. (full story..) |