Researchers have recruited a stringlike virus to carry nanoscale loads of gold that could serve as imaging agents in cancer diagnosis.
The team at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston used a virus called an M13 phage, which normally infects bacteria. In the past, scientists had genetically engineered the 1-micrometer-long virus to attach to various receptors on mammalian cells. In this experiment, Renata Pasqualini and Glauco R. Souza and their colleagues enlisted a virus that binds to a receptor found on tumor cells.