Nanotubes used for new cancer imaging technique / I nanotubi utilizzati per la nuova tecnica di immagine del cancro. Segnalato dal Dott. Giuseppe Cotellessa / Reported by Dr. Joseph Cotellessa Researchers at Rice University in Texas have used carbon nanotubes to develop a new medical imaging technique that can pinpoint tumours. The method, described in the Royal Society of Chemistry journal Nanoscale , relies on spectral triangulation. Cancerous tumours are tagged with antibody-linked nanotubes, which naturally fluoresce at short-wave infrared wavelengths when excited by visible light. A highly sensitive detector called an InGaAs (indium gallium arsenide) avalanche photodiode allows for the faint signals from the nanotubes to be identified up to 20mm deep in the simulated tissue used for testing. “We’re using an unusually sensitive detector that hasn’t been applied to this sort of work before,” said Rice chemist Bruce Weisman, who led the research. “This avalanc