Our Issels® team is extremely supportive of any process that makes detecting cancer cells easier, which is why we are highly enthusiastic about research published in May’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences about a potential new diagnostic tool that can detect cancer at the cellular level in a fast and simple way.

Researchers at Stanford University have learned how to detect and identify different types of cancer cells by levitating them.

It’s Not Magic

When most people hear the word “levitate,” they think of magicians tricking audiences into believing magic exists by floating objects or people in the air.

Scientists have discovered that they can levitate animals by injecting them with a material that reacts to the presence of magnets. The Stanford researchers wondered if they could do the same with cells to determine if cells had different measurable magnetic field levitation profiles. As cells are too small to inject with materials without damaging them, the researchers decided to test their theory using a buoyant force:

• They placed a channel of gadolinium-laced fluid between two small magnets and soon found that any cells that were less dense than gadolinium levitated above it.

• They learned that cancer cells levitated above healthy cells and that cancer, bacteria, blood and yeast cells levitated at different heights.

• They also discovered that cells that form different types of cancer, such as breast, colorectal, esophageal and non-small cell lung had unique profiles and levitated at different heights.

For more information about this astounding new diagnostic test research, or any of our currently available testing and treatment methods, contact any Issels® center for Immuno-Oncology today!