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In a new report in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, researchers at MIT explore the potential for nanotubes to "detect the quantity and status of chemotherapy drugs, toxins, and free radicals," according to DailyTech's Jason Mick.

"The new sensor could play a critical role in evaluating the success of chemotherapy treatments," Mick writes. "As most chemotherapy agents act as DNA disruptors, and can harm living cells, it is critical to see if they are successfully reaching their targets - cancer cells - and how much is accumulating in healthy cells."

"You could figure out not only where the drugs are, but whether a drug is active or not," says MIT grad student Daniel Heller, the paper's lead author.

As Reuters' Julie Steenhuysen explains, the MIT researchers "wrapped carefully shaped carbon nanotubes with DNA, which offers a binding site for DNA-damaging agents inside cells. The sensors give off a fluorescent light that can be detected in the near-infrared light spectrum. Because human tissues do not light up in this spectrum, the nanotubes stand out."

More here from Techworld ... more here from redOrbit ... more here from Scientific American ... and the press release is here.