Ken Nelson

Nanoparticles get busy delivering bad stuff to cancer cells
Photo: Caltech

http://media.caltech.edu/press_releases/13334

A California Institute of Technology (Caltech)-led team of researchers and clinicians has published the first proof that a targeted nanoparticle—used as an experimental therapeutic and injected directly into a patient’s bloodstream—can traffic into tumors, deliver double-stranded small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), and turn off an important cancer gene using a mechanism known as RNA interference (RNAi). Moreover, the team provided the first demonstration that this new type of therapy, infused into the bloodstream, can make its way to human tumors in a dose-dependent fashion—i.e., a higher number of nanoparticles sent into the body leads to a higher number of nanoparticles in the tumor cells.

But this part makes me think it all might work out:

Caltech, Davis, and Heidel have a financial interest in Calando Pharmaceuticals.