Paint the tumor
July 15th, 2007 by SecureCare“A tumor paint developed by researchers…will help surgeons see where a tumor begins and ends more precisely by illuminating the cancerous cells…the tumor paint can help surgeons distinguish between cancer cells and normal brain tissue in the operating room. The paint is a scorpion-derived peptide called chlorotoxin…[researcher] and his team believe that Chlorotoxin:Cy5.5 has the potential to be used in the future as a non-invasive screening tool for early detection of skin, cervical, esophageal, colon and lung cancers. It is also useful in identifying positive lymph nodes which could mean a significant advancement for breast, prostate and testicular cancers.” Full Slice
July 16th, 2007 at 5:53 pm
Obviously, and I’m sure the protagonists of this piece are already thinking of this:
If you can drag a beacon into a tumor, why not drag a suicide machine? Or rather, a key that unlocks the suicide machine, or at least some kind of poison or virus?
That last idea’s actually potentially the easiest. Cy5 is a dye that is often used when making microarrays. That is, there are person-centuries of experience in attaching Cy dyes to DNA-n-stuff.