Nanobubbles Burst Cancer Cells

June 4, 2014

(Discovery News) – Two years ago, researchers at Rice University, led by Dmitri Lapotko, a physicist and biochemist, developed a novel method for killing cancer cells. The technique relies on gold nanoparticles infiltrating cancerous cells. When a laser is shone on those cells, tiny bubbles surround them and explode, thereby ripping the cancerous cells apart. If the bursting bubbles don’t completely destroy the cancer cell, the weakened state it’s left in by the explosions makes it more susceptible to chemotherapy drugs. Now Lapotko and his colleagues are reporting the results of pre-clinical trials using the technique, dubbed “quadrapeutics.”