An advanced laboratory developing innovative cancer treatment using laser beams and gold nanoparticles was inaugurated at the Technion

The laboratory was built thanks to a grant of about two million euros from the European Union and a large donation from the philanthropist Lori Lockey

In the Biomedical Engineering Faculty at the Technion, an advanced laboratory was inaugurated last week that develops innovative cancer treatment using gold nanoparticles and laser beams. This is a non-invasive treatment, which is not accompanied by side effects and damages only the cancer cell and not the healthy cells around it.

The laboratory, in the equipment of which millions of dollars were invested, was established with the help of the philanthropist Lori Lockey, who thanks to his donation of 30 million dollars, the Interdisciplinary Center for Life Sciences and Engineering was established at the Technion in 2006, headed by Nobel laureate Professor Aharon Chachanover. The laboratory is multidisciplinary, with researchers from the fields of physics, optics, biology, biomedical engineering and nanotechnology.

The innovative treatment arouses great interest in Israel and around the world, and the research recently won two significant grants - about two million euros from the European Union and about one million dollars from the Israel Science Foundation.

The innovative laboratory deals with several projects that are all related to an advanced concept of diagnosis and medical treatment within the human body. Dr. Yelin develops a technology that makes it possible to kill cancer cells in a very selective way and without toxins. It brings to the tumor gold nanoparticles that are very low in toxicity. "After they are injected into the blood, they reach the tumor, and then we illuminate the tumor with a laser through a tiny endoscope based on an optical fiber," explains Dr. Yelin. "The laser has two special parameters: one - it consists of very short pulses (millionths of a billionth of a second) capable of breaking down the cell without heating it. The second - the laser has a wavelength that corresponds exactly to the resonance frequency of the nanoparticles, which enables a high efficiency of the laser amplification process." Under these conditions, at a distance of a few nanometers (millionths of a millimeter) from the nanoparticle, light intensities are generated that are sufficient to break down (ionize) the biological material inside the cancer cell, which dies without causing damage to healthy cells in its environment.

The laboratory was inaugurated with the participation of the donor Lori Lockey, Professor Czahnover, the heads of the Technion and a delegation of researchers from the University of Oregon, to which Lori Lockey also contributes a lot.