SAVE MONEY ON TRAVEL DEALS

Physicists Dmitri Lapotko and Jason Hafner created the nanobubbles by placing gold nanoparticles in cancer cells and then zapping them with short laser pulses, the university said in a release.

"The bubbles work like a jackhammer", Lapotko said, noting the goal is to identify and treat unhealthy cells early, before a disease progresses.

Lapotko first used the technique to blast through deposits of arterial plaque in studies at the Laboratory for Laser Cytotechnologies at the A.V. Lykov Heat and Mass Transfer Institute in Minsk, Belarus.

At Rice, the approach was tested successfully on leukemia cells and cells from head and neck cancers, Laptko and Hafner wrote in recent issue of the journal Nanotechnology.

The nanobubble technique could prove useful for "theranostics", a single process that combines diagnosis and therapy, the scientists said.

 BREAKING STORIES

Nutritional training for doctors overdue

Older non-smokers gain most by smoking ban

Disease rates for Asian-Americans differ

Most older Canadians use 5 medications/day

Omega 3 may curb colon polyps

Asian carp prove elusive in Chicago canals

Obesity, passive smoke: Babies at risk

Chemical may protect MD patients' hearts

Songbirds may help solve speech disorders

U.N. group votes down tuna export ban

Raw sewage spills at Denver airport

Protected forests may slow climate change

NASA prepares to study arctic glaciers

New variety of lentil is developed

Wild turkey crashes through window

4-million-year-old killing is studied

Poisoned eggs may protect Cape Cod plovers

How healthcare reform affects consumers

Fossil of rare armor-plated worm found

Leeches studied for reproductive behaviors