PRESIDENT’S REPORT 2015
Dr. Dvir Yellin
RBNI faculty member Dr. Dvir Yelin has made world headlines showing that gold nanoparticles could be used as a revolutionary treatment for cancer.
Using evidence that gold nanoparticles have a 600% greater affinity for cancerous cells than normal, healthy cells, Yelin’s non-invasive treatment is able to target cancerous cells and destroy them, without harming healthy cells in the body. The tumor is illuminated via an endoscopic laser-based miniature optical fibre, explains Yelin. Intense laser illumination dismantles the material within the cancer cell through ionisation. The cancerous cell then dies, without damaging any of the healthy cells surrounding the tumor.
The research won backing from the European Union, which has donated a grant of €2 million as well as a further grant of over $1 million from the Israel Science Foundation. “Technion has a very good reputation,” says the headline-making Yelin: “It is already a leading academic institute in biomedical engineering, and my field is biomedical optics. So it feels like a perfect match.”
The research won backing from the European Union, which has donated a grant of €2 million as well as a further grant of over $1 million from the Israel Science Foundation. “Technion has a very good reputation,” says the headline-making Yelin: “It is already a leading academic institute in biomedical engineering, and my field is biomedical optics. So it feels like a perfect match.”