Cancer nanobomb subject of Nov. 17 lecture

Balaji Panchapakesan, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at UD

2:44 p.m., Nov. 11, 2005--A lecture about the efforts of UD researchers to develop nanotechnologies used for cancer detection and treatment will be given by Balaji Panchapakesan, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, at 7 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 17, in 140 Smith Hall. The free public event is presented by Educate for a Cure, a registered student organization.

Panchapakesan, whose work on a nanobomb that explodes breast cancer tumors has been featured in the journals NanoBiotechnology and Oncology Issues, is the lead investigator for a team that includes Eric Wickstrom, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and his student Greg Cesarone, and UD graduate students Shaoxin Lu, Kousik Sivakumar and postodoctoral researcher Kasif Teker.

Nanobombs are superior to a variety of current treatments because they are powerful, selective, noninvasive, nontoxic and can incorporated current technology, including microsurgery.

Besides being a powerful new tool in cancer treatment, Panchapakesan believes that nanotechnology can provide new tools for cancer diagnosis through the use of tiny nanosensors.

Educate for a Cure is an organization that was formed during the spring 2005 semester by friends of the late Erin Patriccia Donnely, who died last year after a hard fought battle with a type of muscle cancer that lasted through her late high school and college years. She was 21.

Educate for a Cure works closely with the Department of Biological Sciences [www.udel.edu/bio/ed/undergrad/stuorg/] and conducts several fund-raising projects for a variety of causes

For more information, visit [http://copland.udel.edu/stu-org/Cure/] or e-mail [Dsherman@udel.edu].

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