MICROSCOPIC WIRES DETECT CANCERS

Medical professionals will be able to make almost instantaneous determinations of whether patients are suffering from cancer— and what kind of cancer they have. Their miraculous new diagnostic tool? A microscopic wire.

This advance in the speed and specificity of cancer diagnoses will result from using silicon nanowires—wires that are just a few billionths of a meter wide. These wires can detect molecular markers that indicate the presence of cancer in a person’s body, even when those cancer markers consist of only one billionth of the protein present in a drop of blood.

Moreover, while other initial tests can only identify whether cancer is present, the nanowires have the potential to reveal immediately what type of cancer is present. For instance, they can detect the presence of PSA (prostate-specific antigen), which is an indicator of prostate cancer.

These nanowires exemplify how Americans’ investments in university science can save lives. The research that developed this new diagnostic technology was conducted at Harvard University and funded by the National Cancer Institute and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the central research and development organization for the Department of Defense.

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