Among diseases, cancer is a big problem. Now Northwestern University scientists are bringing out some really small guns to fight it.
This week Northwestern was awarded $3.9 million in federal funding to establish a nanotechnology cancer center. One of seven such centers funded by the National Cancer Institute, Northwestern’s will combine expertise from its prestigious cancer research center with its pioneering nanotech institute.
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“This is the carrot that will move nanotechnology to look for advances in cancer detection and treatment,” said Chad Mirkin, the Northwestern chemistry professor who will direct the new center. Nearly 40 researchers from 15 different academic departments will collaborate in applying nanotechnology to cancer research.
Nanoparticles are of a size between 1 and 100 billionths of a meter that is on the same scale as human cells, making them ideal for interacting with cells. The goal is to create a suite of nanotools that will enable cancer researchers to study disease and discover new therapies, said Mirkin.
One project will attempt to discover why cancer cells are so adept at dispersing throughout a person’s body. Surfaces coated with different nanoparticles will be used to monitor how cancer cells move about and how they are different from normal cells. The nanotechnology should provide cancer researchers with insights unavailable from standard technology.
“Cancer folks and nanotech people rarely talk to one another, except through an enterprise such as this,” said Mirkin.
Researchers are looking at several biological markers associated with ovarian cancer, he said. Their goal is to assemble several relevant markers that can be targeted by nanoparticles to identify ovarian cancer in its earliest stages, when therapies may be more effective in thwarting it.
Mirkin also envisions creating nanoparticles with “cargo bins” loaded with toxic molecules that can be delivered to cancer cells to kill them without affecting nearby healthy cells.
“Nanoparticles are really small, but they’re bigger than molecules,” Mirkin said. “They can be used as delivery trucks.”
One reason that Northwestern was awarded the nano cancer center is its track record of creating small businesses to exploit discoveries made by academic researchers, Mirkin said.
Two companies, Nanosphere and NanoInk, are selling products based upon NU research. Mirkin said it’s likely that new technology that detects cancer sooner and provides new therapies to fight it will also spawn local companies to develop for market.
Eighteen companies have indicated an interest in partnering with the new center to help develop marketable products.
Internet telephony gains fans: Enthusiasm for Internet telephony apparently is growing among managers at small and midsize businesses.
A survey taken for the Oakbrook Terrace-based Computing Technology Industry Association found that a majority of businesses are looking into technology that combines voice and data on a single network.
The survey of some 300 U.S. businesses with 20 to 500 employees found nearly 60 percent have either adopted converged networks, are looking at doing so or plan to look at it within the next 18 months.
“These plans for deployment and evaluation are even more impressive when you consider that nearly two-thirds of these companies said they are generally satisfied with their existing communications systems,” said John Venator, the industry association’s chief. “Small and medium-sized businesses clearly believe converged voice and data networks have real business value.”
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