Nanomachines kill cancer cells

Scientists are inventing new ways to kill cancer cell, a new technique is being tested on kidney, mice and hamster cells in vitro, leading to immediate death of cancer cells. Nanomachines are being used in this respect. These new machines are so tiny, at just a nanometer wide, that 50,000 of them could be lined up across the width of Human hair. Although the nanodrillers bear no resemblance to a machine, the molecules strung together by chemists run like an electric motor. A stationary stator holds the machine in place while a moving rotator spins and drills across the cell membrane. The paddle like rotator, a series of three rings of carbon atoms, beings rotating 2-3 million times per second when hit by UV light. On either side of the stator are arms of carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen that stretch out and grip the surface of the cell. When these nanomachines were tested on Human kidney cells in a dish, holes formed in the cells within minutes and death soon followed. Molecules added to the stator's arm can work as chemical zip codes to selectively direct the nanomachines to a particular structure on a cell surface such as protein expressed on prostate cancer cells. Nanomachines in a dish targeted, punctured, and killed prostate cancer cells more rapidly.