Scientists Develop Nanomachines Capable of Killing Cancer Cells

A few weeks ago, I talked about the A.I. capable of detecting Cancer with incredible accuracy results. Now, we are going to talk about how humanity is getting one step closer to becoming Solid Snake from Metal Gear. Nanomachines which can drill into cancer cells, killing them in just 60 seconds, have been developed by scientists.

The tiny spinning molecules are driven by light, and spin so quickly that they can burrow their way through cell linings when activated. In one test conducted at Durham University the nanomachines took between one and three minutes to break through the outer membrane of prostate cancer cell, killing it instantly.

This is an amazing development for the scientific community. Dr Robert Pal of Durham University said: “We are moving towards realising our ambition to be able to use light-activated nanomachines to target cancer cells such as those in breast tumours and skin melanomas, including those that are resistant to existing chemotherapy.”

This effort is done to provide a potential step change in non-invasive cancer treatment and greatly improve survival rates and patient welfare globally. It’s just incredible to see such development that has us stepping closer and closer to remove Cancer from our lives once and for all.

So, how do these nanomachines work? I mentioned that they are driven by light, but there are also important aspects on their structure to take into account. The ‘motor’ is a rotor-like chain of atoms that can be prompted to move in one direction, causing the molecule to rotate at high speed. You can look at this video for further information:

Dr James Tour, a member of the international team from Rice University in Houston, US, said: “These nanomachines are so small that we could park 50,000 of them across the diameter of a human hair, yet they have the targeting and actuating components combined in that diminutive package to make molecular machines a reality for treating disease.”