Halas, West awarded ‘best discovery’

Halas, West awarded ‘best discovery’

BY JADE BOYD
Rice News staff

Rice University engineering researchers Naomi Halas and Jennifer West have been awarded ”Best Discovery of 2003” by Nanotechnology Now, the world’s leading nanotechnology news and information site.

Halas, the Stanley C. Moore Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering and professor of chemistry, and West, associate professor in bioengineering and chemical engineering, were honored for their groundbreaking work to develop a cancer therapy based on metallic nanoshells.

For the past six years, the team at Nanotechnology Now has tracked the thousands of Web sites, individuals, businesses and government and educational institutions that exist in the field of nanotechnology.

”We read about and report on them every day, 365 days a year,” said Nanotechnology Now Editor Rocky Rawstern. ”By interviewing and speaking with [people involved in nanotechnology] and covering their news, opinions, discoveries, triumphs and failures, we have come to appreciate a few above the rest. Selected from the whole, the ones we’ve chosen as the ‘Best of 2003’ represent a small fraction of the tens of thousands of participants in the [field of nanotechnology].”

Clinical trials have yet to begin for a nanoshell-based cancer therapy, but Halas and West’s preliminary work on the therapy was recognized in July 2003 by the Department of Defense Congressionally Directed Breast Cancer Research Program. The program presented Halas its Innovator Award, complete with a $3 million, four-year grant.

Invented by Halas in 1998, nanoshells are a new class of multilayered nanoscale particle that has unique optical properties controlled by the thickness and composition of their constituent layers. In form, nanoshells resemble malted milk balls, but the coating is gold instead of chocolate, and the center is a sphere of glass. Just 100 nanometers in diameter, nanoshells are about 20 times smaller than a red blood cell.

By varying the relative size of the glass core and the gold shell layer, researchers can ”tune” nanoshells to respond to different wavelengths of light.

For biomedical applications, nanoshells can be designed and fabricated to specifically absorb near-infrared light. A region of the spectrum just beyond the visible range, near-infrared light is optimal for medical imaging and treatment because it passes harmlessly through soft tissue.

Unlike drug-based cancer therapies, the photothermal treatment of cancer relies on the basic physics of light. By shining near-infrared light on gold nanoshells, researchers can generate enough heat to burst the walls of cells. The light itself is invisible and harmless, and because the heating is very localized, it affects only cells immediately adjacent to the nanoshells.

For more on the Nanotechnology Now ”Best Discovery of 2003” award, visit < http://nanotech-now.com/2003-Awards/Best-Discoveries-2003.htm >.