IIT Roorkee researchers create fluorescent carbon nanodots for detecting cancer

Researchers at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee have created fluorescent carbon nanodots that can serve as “theranostic” (therapeutic and diagnostic) agents for cancer. 

Led by P Gopinath, a team of IIT Roorkee researchers has extracted these nanosized carbon materials from the leaves of the rosy periwinkle plant.  

P Gopinath said, "Such events of real-time image-guided anticancer therapy by a single system open a new paradigm in the field of anticancer therapy. With these nanomaterials, we can identify the cancer cells and track them by an imaging system simultaneously as the cells themselves are being eradicated in a precise surgical strike."

"We are planning next stage animal studies for further evaluation of these nanomaterials in oncological applications, for both diagnostics and treatment," he added.

This research has been supported by the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) and Department of Biotechnology (DBT).

Gopinath stated, "The identification of cancer cells and their inhibition/destruction have been continuing challenges in the field of oncology and cancer drug research for many decades. In the past few years, nanotechnology has emerged as one of the most promising areas in cancer diagnostics and treatment and nanomaterials – materials having dimensions in the nanometre (10-9 m) range – are being increasingly studied as agents in molecular tumour imaging, molecular diagnosis and targeted therapy."