Other than the fact Gold is expensive, it has proved to be an extremely useful element in the science of nanotechnology. Thanks to its chemical properties. Using gold nano-particles researchers at Case Western Reserve University have successfully tested a new delivery system, which accelerated the effect of cancer-fighting drugs from days to a few hours. DailyTech explains, “To accomplish this ultra-speedy delivery, researchers used gold nanoparticle vectors to deliver photodynamic therapy (PDT) drugs, a class of drugs that burn away cancer with light via wavelength energization, to tumors.”

Incase you are not aware, to fight a cancer, just getting the drug particles to the tumor itself is a considerably important step. With the help of this new technology, scientist will be able to considerably decrease the “effect-time” of the cancer-fighting drugs, making the patients much less inconvenienced, resulting in them to have a more normal lifestyle. As of now, the test medium has been mice, testing on human beings may not begin for some time.

[source: eurekalert.org via dailytech.com, image source (top): case.edu, (below): Hannu Häkkinen]