Iridium in asteroid may be used for treating cancer

Scientists from the UK and China have demonstrated that iridium, a rare metal delivered to Earth by a 10-km wide asteroid hat wiped out dinosaurs when it crashed into the earth over 65 million years ago, can be used to kill cancer without harming the healthy cells.

Researchers from the University of Warwick in the UK and Sun Yat-Sen University in China used the emerging laser-based techniques to turn iridium into an effective cancer killer, the new atlas.com reported, according to IANS.

The team created a compound of iridium and organic materials, and then introduced it into a lung cancer tumour grown in the lab.

When red laser light is shone onto it through the skin, the compound is activated, converting the oxygen in the tumour into singlet oxygen, a poisonous form of the element that effectively kills the cancer cells from the inside.

UCJ, UNILORIN.