When you’re getting new tools to explore disease like the ones mentioned below, it’s hard to wait to see what gets built with them. From the ACS meeting–American Chemical Society, that is.
As our understanding of biology increases, the tools of research become almost as important as the researchers wielding them. Currently, one of the major obstacles to research is actually getting inside of cells and tissue to see what is going on as it happens.
“We are developing techniques to control and study biomolecules within cells and living systems,” Ivan Dmochowski (U Penn) said. “The most immediate payoff from this research will be in figuring out how proteins interact in real time inside living organisms as well as how diseases, especially cancer, progress through the body.”
“…our lab is generating new biosensors that we hope will identify biomarkers associated with cancers of the lungs, brain and pancreas,” Dmochowski said. “Over time, we’ll be able to use MRI to detect aberrant proteins that cause cancer in humans before the actual formation of a tumor.”