Can Nanotechnology Help Detect and Treat Melanoma?
How could nanotechnology change melanoma care? Find out how tiny materials may help doctors detect skin cancer earlier, target treatment and track how well therapy is working.
Could nanotechnology help us detect and treat melanoma more effectively?
Melanoma is a serious form of skin cancer. When doctors identify it at an early stage, treatment can be more effective. If cancer cells spread to other parts of the body, known as metastasis, treating the disease becomes more difficult.
In this video, Damla Ulker, Postdoctoral Researcher in the University of Sheffield’s School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, explains how nanotechnology could support the diagnosis and treatment of melanoma.
Nanotechnology allows researchers to work with materials at an extremely small scale. At this level, materials can have different physical and quantum properties, opening up new possibilities for medicine. Nanomaterials and nanoparticles are already being explored for areas including cancer diagnosis, targeted drug delivery and treatment.
Damla’s research looks at how these technologies could help identify melanoma at an earlier stage, target cancer treatment and monitor how well a patient is responding to therapy.
By bringing together nanotechnology, physics and cancer research, her work explores how tiny materials could help us tackle one of the biggest challenges in melanoma care: finding and treating the disease as effectively as possible.
Credits
- Researcher: Dr Damla Ulker (Research Associate in Biophysical Chemistry at the University of Sheffield)
- Video Production: Natalie Heasman Tree (Student at the University of Sheffield)
