Overview
- Stanford’s peer-reviewed Nature Materials paper, published Monday, reports a way to create pinpoint light inside living tissue by activating bloodstream nanoparticles with focused ultrasound.
- The mechanoluminescent nanoparticles, processed from ceramics, stay dark until ultrasound pressure makes them glow blue at about 490 nanometers at precisely chosen spots or along a moving scan path.
- In mouse tests, a small ultrasound hat lit up different brain regions without surgery and drove reliable left or right turns based on which neurons were stimulated.
- The team points to uses such as photodynamic cancer therapy, ultraviolet emission to kill microbes, and switch-like control of gene editing in collaboration with Michael Lin.
- Before any human studies, researchers aim to replace the current long-lasting particles because they can persist and accumulate in organs such as the liver.