JPL
Careers
Education
Science & Technology
JPL Logo
JPL Logo
Technology
.

JPL Nanotubes Help Advance Brain Tumor Research

Jan 16, 2008
Benham Badie, M.D., director of the Department of Neurosurgery and the Brain Tumor program at City of Hope, performs a minimally invasive procedure to surgically remove a pituitary tumor. Nanotube technology may help in the development of new treatments that would require only minimally invasive procedures no matter the location of the brain tumor.
Credit: City of Hope

PASADENA, Calif.- The potential of carbon nanotubes to diagnose and treat brain tumors is being explored through a partnership between NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., and City of Hope, a leading cancer research and treatment center in Duarte, Calif.

PASADENA, Calif.- The potential of carbon nanotubes to diagnose and treat brain tumors is being explored through a partnership between NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., and City of Hope, a leading cancer research and treatment center in Duarte, Calif.

Nanotechnology may help revolutionize medicine in the future with its promise to play a role in selective cancer therapy. City of Hope researchers hope to boost the brain's own immune response against tumors by delivering cancer-fighting agents via nanotubes. A nanotube is about 50,000 times narrower than a human hair, but it length can extend up to several centimeters.

If nanotube technology can be effectively applied to brain tumors, it might also be used to treat stroke, trauma, neurodegenerative disorders and other disease processes in the brain, said Dr. Behnam Badie, City of Hope's director of neurosurgery and of its brain tumor program.

"I'm very optimistic of how this nanotechnology will work out," he said. "We are hoping to begin testing in humans in about five years, and we have ideas about where to go next."

The Nano and Micro Systems Group at JPL, which has been researching nanotubes since about 2000, creates these tiny, cylindrical multi-walled carbon tubes for City of Hope.

City of Hope researchers, who began their quest in 2006, found good results: The nanotubes, which they used on mice, were non-toxic in brain cells, did not change cell reproduction and were capable of carrying DNA and siRNA, two types of molecules that encode genetic information.

JPL's Nano and Micro Systems Group grows the nanotubes on silicon strips a few square millimeters in area. The growth process forms them into hollow tubes as if by rolling sheets of graphite-like carbon.

Carbon nanotubes are extremely strong, flexible, heat-resistant, and have very sharp tips. Consequently, JPL uses nanotubes as field-emission cathodes -- vehicles that help produce electrons -- for various space applications such as x-ray and mass spectroscopy instruments, vacuum microelectronics and high-frequency communications.

"Nanotubes are important for miniaturizing spectroscopic instruments for space applications, developing extreme environment electronics, as well as for remote sensing," said Harish Manohara, the technical group supervisor for JPL's Nano and Micro Systems Group.

Nanotubes are a fairly new innovation, so they are not yet routinely used in current NASA missions, he added. However, they may be used in gas-analysis or mineralogical instruments for future missions to Mars, Venus and the Jupiter system.

JPL's collaboration with City of Hope began last year, after Manohara, Badie and Dr. Babak Kateb, City of Hope's former director of research and development in the brain tumor program, discussed using nanostructures to better diagnose and treat brain cancer. Badie said his team's nanomedical research continues, and the next goal will be to functionalize and attach inhibitory RNA to the nanotubes and deliver it to specific areas of the brain.

The JPL and City of Hope teams published the results of the study earlier this year in the journal NeuroImage.

Badie says that JPL's contribution to City of Hope's nanomedicine research has been invaluable.

"The fact that we can get pristine and really clean nanotubes from Manohara's department is unique," he said. "The fact that we are both collaborating for biological purposes is also really unique."

The collaboration between JPL and City of Hope is conducted under NASA's Innovative Partnership Program, designed to bring benefits of the space program to the public.

For more information about NASA's Innovative Partnership Programs, visit: http://www.ipp.nasa.gov . For more information about City of Hope, visit: http://www.cityofhope.org .

News Media Contact

Rhea Borja

1-818-354-0850

Rhea.R.Borja@jpl.nasa.gov

Shawn Le

(800) 888-5323

Sle@coh.org

2008-006

Related News

Technology .

NASA’s DC-8 Returns to Flight

Technology .

NASA Confirms New SIMPLEx Mission Small Satellite to Blaze Trails Studying Lunar Surface

Earth .

Follow Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich in Real Time As It Orbits Earth

Climate Change .

US-European Mission Launches to Monitor the World's Oceans

Climate Change .

Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich Satellite Prepared for Launch

Exoplanets .

16-Year-Old Cosmic Mystery Solved, Revealing Stellar Missing Link

Climate Change .

NASA TV to Air Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich Launch, Prelaunch Activities

Climate Change .

Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich Prepared for Launch

Stars and Galaxies .

NASA Missions Help Pinpoint the Source of a Unique X-ray, Radio Burst

Technology .

NASA Contacts Voyager 2 Using Upgraded Deep Space Network Dish

Explore More

Topic .

Technology

Video .

Working Remotely: How Astronauts Upgraded a Complex Experiment in Space

Infographic .

Caltech (Verma,Akhil phD. Planetary Science)

Video .

NASA Climbing Robot Scales Cliffs and Looks for Life

Infographic .

Voyager 2: By the Numbers

Infographic .

Grand Challenge Initiative

Video .

OnSight: Virtual Visit to Mars

Infographic .

Pi in the Sky 5

Infographic .

Understanding the Ionosphere: NASA's ICON Mission

Infographic .

2018 Poker Flat Sounding Rocket Campaign Quick Look

About JPL
Who We Are
Executive Council
Directors of JPL
JPL History
Documentary Series
Virtual Tour
Annual Reports
Missions
All
Current
Past
Future
News
All
Earth
Mars
Solar System
Universe
Technology
Galleries
Images
Videos
Audio
Podcasts
Infographics
Engage
JPL and the Community
Lecture Series
Public Tours
Events
Team Competitions
JPL Speakers Bureau
Topics
Solar System
Mars
Earth
Climate Change
Stars and Galaxies
Exoplanets
Technology
JPL Life
For Media
Contacts and Information
Press Kits
More
Asteroid Watch
Robotics at JPL
Subscribe to Newsletter
Social Media
Get the Latest from JPL
Follow Us

JPL is a federally funded research and development center managed for NASA by Caltech.

More from JPL
Careers Education Science & Technology Acquisitions JPL Store
Careers
Education
Science & Technology
Acquisitions
JPL Store
Related NASA Sites
Basics of Spaceflight
Climate Kids
Earth / Global Climate Change
Exoplanet Exploration
Mars Exploration
Solar System Exploration
Space Place
NASA's Eyes Visualization Project
Voyager Interstellar Mission
NASA
Caltech
Privacy
Image Policy
FAQ
Feedback
Site Manager: Veronica McGregor
Site Editors: Tony Greicius, Randal Jackson, Naomi Hartono