The Wide Angle: Nano Swat Teams Kill Cancer

gvonmalt2007: No blood clotting is something that I go back to often -- of course there are lots of other examples in biology that  are just as inspiring. The key to blood coagulation is amplification -- and knowing how to use it.

imtracynotstacy: "amplification" sounds like a lab word
you might start to lose me here

gvonmalt2007: Yea, sorry. The key is that blood clotting is able to both really sensitively "hear" or "listen " for an injury nearby and then turn up the volume very quickly when it does

imtracynotstacy: "turn up the volume" meaning...what?
3:38 PM

gvonmalt2007: Basically it makes a very slow process much faster. Makes a very weak signal into a strong signal.

imtracynotstacy: and the strong signal gets the body on track to fixing the damage (like the cut?)

gvonmalt2007: Yup, the strong signal brings enough proteins and cells to the site to stop bleeding.

imtracynotstacy: so you're trying to do a similar thing with the cancer targeting particles, then? Right?
You're trying to get them to listen
and then when they "hear" something ramp up and swarm in to treat the disease?

gvonmalt2007: Exactly-- we're making nanoparticles that when they find a tumor,
they set off the alarms for the others to come in too.

imtracynotstacy: So would these particles already be in my body monitoring the environment?
Or are these things that a doctor might inject to look for disease?

gvonmalt2007: Right now you mean!

imtracynotstacy: I mean potentially

gvonmalt2007: Haha. So you're actually right in some ways. The particles would be injected by a doctor
but the particles could plug into teams of proteins that are already in the body and use them to help send their signal

imtracynotstacy: Ok. Got it.

gvonmalt2007: In that sense, one set of particles would direct proteins in your body to act a certain way in tumors, and then another set of particles would target places where that starts happening

imtracynotstacy: What inspires you to do this kind of research?
3:45 PM

gvonmalt2007: I really enjoy the creativity behind this stuff--and am continually impressed with how these systems work in biology. It's easy to stay humble when you compare our progress to all the things that happen in order for blood to clot in a wound.

imtracynotstacy: If you could dream big, no boundaries, what would you hope for your research?
reach for the stars
3:51 PM

gvonmalt2007: Well broadly, I think this idea of synthesizing systems of "interactive" nanoparticles has a huge number of applications. Again with blood clotting, instead of thinking about that system as "biology" if we call it a technology, much like our cell phones are technologies, and try to build things like that ourselves, I think we have the potential to make systems that more effectively find cancer, treat infections, or affect lots of other aspects of health care.
3:54 PM

gvonmalt2007: There's a long way to go, and we need to be able to reliably make the pieces that go into these systems, and dream up ways for them to work together.
But with a mixture of new ideas, engineering, and science, I think it's possible.

imtracynotstacy: do you think you could save lives?

gvonmalt2007: Certainly -- the goal is to make these systems to save lives.

imtracynotstacy: so when you're not working with nanoparticles, what do you do in your free time?

gvonmalt2007: Talking about nanoparticles, mostly.
No, outside of that.
I like to get outdoors, which isn't always so easy in Boston.

imtracynotstacy: Are you going to get outdoors tonight? It's like 70 out there.

gvonmalt2007: Yea, tonight I think we're having a cook-out

imtracynotstacy: perfect!
Well I know you have to head out, so I"ll let you go for now.
Thanks for your time.

gvonmalt2007: Great -- thanks Tracy.
4:00 PM