Feinberg
Northwestern Medicine | Northwestern University | Faculty Profiles

News Center

  • Categories
    • Campus News
    • Disease Discoveries
    • Clinical Breakthroughs
    • Education News
    • Scientific Advances
  • Press Releases
  • Media Coverage
  • Podcasts
  • Editor’s Picks
    • COVID-19
    • Cardiology
    • Cancer
    • Neurology and Neuroscience
    • Aging and Longevity
    • Artificial Intelligence in Medicine
  • News Archives
  • About Us
    • Media Contact
    • Share Your News
    • News Feeds
    • Social Media
    • Contact Us
Menu
  • Categories
    • Campus News
    • Disease Discoveries
    • Clinical Breakthroughs
    • Education News
    • Scientific Advances
  • Press Releases
  • Media Coverage
  • Podcasts
  • Editor’s Picks
    • COVID-19
    • Cardiology
    • Cancer
    • Neurology and Neuroscience
    • Aging and Longevity
    • Artificial Intelligence in Medicine
  • News Archives
  • About Us
    • Media Contact
    • Share Your News
    • News Feeds
    • Social Media
    • Contact Us
Home » New Instrument Tracks Nanoparticles in Cancer Cells
Scientific Advances

New Instrument Tracks Nanoparticles in Cancer Cells

By Sarah PlumridgeJul 7, 2014
Share
Facebook Twitter Email
Gayle E. Woloschak, PhD, professor in Radiation Oncology and Radiology, and a team of scientists developed Bionanoprobe, the first and only x-ray florescent microscopy instrument that allows researchers to take three-dimensional images of nanoparticles in cells.

Gayle E. Woloschak, PhD, professor in Radiation Oncology and Radiology, created nanoparticles to target and destroy cancer cells, but when she wanted to see where they traveled to within cells, traditional x-ray imaging did not work.

“My main goal is delivering nanoparticles to the nucleus of a cancer cell where they can do the most damage,” Woloschak said. “When the nanoparticles are activated by radiation, it’s almost like dropping a bomb in a cancer cell, they explode.”

Traditional x-ray imaging penetrates through cells, making it difficult to determine whether nanoparticles are above, below or inside the nucleus. Most other microscopy methods destroy the cell in the process of taking the image.

Woloschak and a team of scientists from the Argonne National Laboratory, Northwestern Synchrotron Research Center and Carl Zeiss X-ray Microscopy developed Bionanoprobe, the first and only x-ray florescent microscopy instrument that allows researchers to take three-dimensional images of nanoparticles in cells.

A paper about this research was published in the Argonne annual report, APS Science 2013. Ye Yaun, a seventh-year Medical Scientist Training Program student was first author.

“The idea was to create something different than anything else in the world,” Woloschak said. “We developed a tool that has 3D images, uses frozen cells – which is the closest you can get to live cells – and can detect any element on the periodic table. The resolution is so sensitive that it can even quantitate how many atoms of a metal are in the sample.”

In order to use the instrument, the team created nanoparticles with an iron oxide core in a titanium dioxide shell. The titanium dioxide reacts to light, while the iron oxide reveals the nanoparticle in a magnetic resonance image.

They then attached several different peptides to the nanoparticles, creating nanocomposites. Creating a nanocomposite provided a vehicle to transport the nanoparticle from the surface of the cell to the nucleus. To do this, the group tested the nanocomposites to see which ones would bind to epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), a protein that is overexpressed in many types of cancer, such as breast cancer.

EGFR typically moves from the surface of cancer cells to the nucleus, therefore transporting the nanoparticle into the nucleus.

To prove that the nanoparticles made it into the nucleus, Woloschak injected nanocomposites inside the cancer cells and placed them into the Bionanoprobe.

Inside the instrument, the sample of cancer cells were rotated, allowing pictures to be taken from multiple angles. The pictures are combined to form one three-dimensional image. Having the ability to observe the cells from different angles, the team could determine that the nanoparticles had moved to the nucleus.

Now that Woloschak has shown that the nanoparticles reached their target, the next steps will be to attach drugs to the nanoparticles using the same technique.

“I am excited about the potential for new therapies being developed,” she said. “This technology allows us to detect patterns and basic biological processes with much greater sensitivity than we could in the past.”

This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health under the grants CA107467, EB0022100, U54CA119341 and GM104530.

Education Research
Share. Facebook Twitter Email

Related Posts

Hormone Therapy Plus Current Treatments Improves Survival in Prostate Cancer

Mar 22, 2023

How ChatGPT Has, and Will Continue to, Transform Scientific Research

Mar 21, 2023

New Directions for HIV Treatment

Mar 21, 2023

Comments are closed.

Latest News

Hormone Therapy Plus Current Treatments Improves Survival in Prostate Cancer

Mar 22, 2023

How ChatGPT Has, and Will Continue to, Transform Scientific Research

Mar 21, 2023

New Directions for HIV Treatment

Mar 21, 2023

Humans are Not Just Big Mice: Identifying Science’s Muscle-Scaling Problem

Mar 20, 2023

AOA Honors New Members

Mar 20, 2023
  • News Center Home
  • Categories
  • Press Release
  • Media Coverage
  • Editor’s Picks
  • News Archives
  • About Us
Flickr Photos
20230315_NM036
20230315_NM046
20230315_NM134
20230315_NM205
20230315_NM206
20230315_NM132
20230315_NM130
20230315_NM082
20230315_NM063
20230315_NM058
20230315_NM030
20230315_NM038

Northwestern University logo

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

RSS Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Flickr YouTube Instagram
Copyright © 2023 Northwestern University
  • Contact Northwestern University
  • Disclaimer
  • Campus Emergency Information
  • Policy Statements

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.