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Biotechnology
Tool may light way to cure for cancer
U. of C. lasers can sort particles
By Jon Van
Tribune staff reporter
Published March 8, 2003
New laser light tools can manipulate tiny pieces of matter in ways never before possible, a University of Chicago researcher revealed to a meeting of physicists Wednesday.
A Chicago firm is already working on new products based on the discovery.
Arryx Inc. hopes to have products on the market in three to five years that can sort cancer cells from normal human cells, among other applications valuable to treating illness.
Even sooner, the firm should be marketing equipment that will sort bull sperm so that artificial inseminators can reliably predict the gender of the offspring the sperm will produce.
The University of Chicago discoveries concern ways of making computer-driven lasers produce three dimensional holograms that act as traps to gently suck in molecules, cells and other tiny particles.
David Grier, a U. of C. physics professor, and his collaborators have found ways of modifying laser light waves so that their edges look more like corkscrews than straight lines. These complex light waves construct particle traps that set particles zipping around them at thousands of revolutions per minute, he said.
These discoveries, presented at a meeting of the American Physical Society in Austin, Texas, greatly interest scientists studying nature's basic secrets.
They also have great potential for the fields of biotechnology and nanotechnology.
Arryx already markets so-called light tweezers that enable researchers to manipulate and study very tiny pieces of matter, but the new discoveries will enable the firm to create products useful on an industrial scale, said Lewis Gruber, Arryx's chief executive.
Providing animal husbandry with equipment to sort bull sperm into those that produce males and those that will produce females is a logical first step, he said.
"We're looking at high-throughput applications," Gruber said. "A sperm sorter does that, but it doesn't have the regulatory hurdles you have with equipment that would sort human cells."
Arryx hopes to be selling sperm sorters in 2004 and to have human cell sorting equipment available sometime after 2005. One application could be for cancer patients who have their bone marrow removed before undergoing treatment to kill cancer cells in their bodies.
The bone marrow is then replaced to produce a new set of immune cells, but if some cancer cells are present in the bone marrow when it is replaced, the patient may suffer recurrence of the disease, he said.
A cell sorter that could trap all cancer cells would eliminate that possibility.
Copyright © 2003, Chicago Tribune
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