[Dean's World] Dean: Detecting Apoptosis

[notify at powerblogs.com]

Posted by Dean:
Detecting Apoptosis
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1141496894.shtml


   Okay, check this out: researchers at Harvard have developed a
   nanotech-based sensor system that can detect apoptosis--death--of
   cancer cells in chemotherappy patients. The idea is pretty simple:
   normally you have to wait weeks or even months before you can tell
   whether chemotherapy is working to kill the cancer cells you want to
   kill. These sensors can tell cancer cells from normal ones, and, can
   tell whether the cancer cells are dying. If they aren't, doctors can
   switch strategies and medications, and can do it much more quickly
   than they can right now.

   Read about it [1]right here.

   I am often amused that people think of the emerging field of
   nanotechnology is some sort of stupid geeky subject that isn't really
   going to be all that important in the future. The field is expanding
   at an exponential rate, and most of the things they talk about doing
   with it are acknowledged to be engineering challenges and not just
   wild speculation.

References

   1. http://www.technologyreview.com/NanoTech/wtr_16467,319,p1.html