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Two Ohio State University astronomy researchers have established an international reputation for using X-rays and supercomputers to search the vast depths of space to identify elusive black holes. Now, they and their interdisciplinary colleagues are repositioning their scientific methodology to peer into the human body to enhance cancer therapy and diagnostics (theranostics).

Led by OSUs Anil Pradhan , Ph.D., and Sultana Nahar, Ph.D., an international research team is using new computer-based models and high-end X-ray spectroscopy to minimize radiation risks and enhance therapeutic efficiency for cancer patients. The X-ray irradiation process causes embedded nanoparticles of iron, gold and other heavy elements to release photons and low-energy electrons to help break up the DNA in malignant tumors. The researchers are also experimenting with bromine, iodine and platinum.

The resonant nano-plasma theranostics or RNPT could revolutionise X-ray diagnostics and therapy, Pradhan told the science magazine Nature. The RNPT approach would reduce radiation exposure by factors from 10 to 100, he added.

The Ohio Supercomputer Center, with our flagship IBM Cluster 1350 system, is well positioned to help researchers with this sort of ground-breaking, critically important investigation, said Ashok Krishnamurthy, interim co-executive director of OSC.

Nature recently reported on Pradhan and Nahars cancer project in its India edition, while just last month, OSC highlighted the duos recent astronomy work in an annual research publication.

Black holes are invisible, but a plasma sea of super-hot atoms spiraling into black holes betrays their existence. Astronomers study the plasma to collect telltale radiation readings, from the visible to the X-ray, using satellites and large telescopes, such as the Large Binocular Telescope.

Pradhan, Nahar and their team leveraged OSC resources to perform high-accuracy energy calculations to compare with the radiation readings. The most precise large-scale calculations ever made for iron were done by Nahar, who thus is known among astronomers as the Iron Lady.

Astrophysicists also use supercomputers to virtually create the conditions found inside a star and compare their results with laboratory measurements made from nuclear fusion devices. OSC hosts the teams unique on-line interactive databases (OPSERVER and OSU-NORAD) that are accessed by astronomers and physicists worldwide

Nature-India:

Tailored X-rays for cancer , news story published 29 November 2009.

New computer-based models along with high-end X-ray imaging could aid the use of nanoparticles of gold and other heavy elements in cancer therapy and diagnostics1.

To minimize radiation risks and enhance therapeutic efficiency, researchers have used X-rays at precisely tuned 'resonant' energies efficiently absorbed by nanoparticles of gold and iron.

Upon irradiation by mono-energetic X-ray beams, the embedded nanoparticles emit photons and low-energy electrons breaking up the DNA in malignant tissues.

In addition to iron and gold, the researchers are also experimenting with bromine and iodine, which are active elements in radiological contrast agents used for imaging, as also the high atomic number element platinum.

"The resonant nano-plasma theranostics or RNPT could revolutionise X-ray diagnostics and therapy," says lead researcher Anil Pradhan. The RNPT approach introduces atomic and molecular spectroscopy in X-ray imaging in conjunction with nanobiotechnology, reducing radiation exposure by factors from 10 to 100, he adds.

The authors of this work are from: Department of Astronomy, and department of Chemistry, The Ohio State University, Ohio; department of radiation oncology, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Applied physics division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, US and High Performance Computing Group, ISL, IBM India, Bangalore, India.

References: Pradhan, K. A. et al. Resonant X-ray Enhancement of the Auger Effect in High-Z Atoms, Molecules, and Nanoparticles: Potential Biomedical Applications. J. Phys. Chem. A. 113, 12356-12363 (2009) |

"FROM ASTROPHYSICS TO BIOMEDICINE VIA NANOTECHNOLGY (In OSUToday):

A cover-story in Radiation Therapy magazine IMAGE reported on novel developments in the use of X-rays and nanoparticles for cancer diagnostics and therapy by an interdisciplinary group at Ohio State and other institutions. The article, The X-Ray Reloaded: Rearming Radiography with Resonant Theranostics , may be accessed on-line. The collaboration at OSU is led by Prof. Anil Pradhan (Astronomy and Chemical Physics), and includes researchers from the College of Biological and Mathematical and Physical Sciences, and the OSU Medical Center. The overall multi-disciplinary effort, theoretical and experimental, involves atomic and molecular physicists and chemists, astrophysicists, radiation therapists, and X-ray instrumentalists."

return to Anil K. Pradhan's home page

Revised: April 3, 2013