Molecular Jackhammers Drill Pathway to Killing Cancer Cells   

The researchers would like to continue testing and improving this technique so medical professionals can eventually utilize it to help treat cancer patients. The vast array of possible molecular structures paves the way for tailoring and using them to combat cancer.

“This is one of the very few theoretical-experimental approaches of this nature; usually, research in the fields related to medicine does not use first principles quantum-chemistry techniques like those used in the present work, despite the strong benefit of knowing what the electrons and nuclei of all atoms are doing in molecules or materials of interest,” said Seminario.

Research collaborators include Dr. Diego Galvez-Aranda from the chemical engineering department at Texas A&M, Drs. Ciceron Ayala-Orozco and James M. Tour from Rice University, and Arnoldo Corona, Roberto Rangel and Jeffrey N. Myers from UT-MD Anderson Cancer Center.