Tuesday October 11, 2005 news@michigandaily.com SCIENCE 5 V University researchers are develo U niversity researchers are hopin in the fight against cancer by seek out and destroy cancer cel As the second-leading cause of deati will claim more than 550,000 lives this million new cases of cancer will be d States, according to the National Cance With the ever-increasing number of nation, doctors are searching for new infected individuals. One such scientist is Raoul Kopelm and chemistry professor at the Univers a novel solution to combat this deadly plastic pellets known as PEBBLEs. PEB probes encapsulated by biologically loc tiny polymer globules that directly ta the body. Recent clinical trials on rats have sh ment using PEBBLEs can extend the ra with no adverse side effects. The reas is that the pellets only seek out and att in the body and then use the body's ov infected cell. Kopelman makes the micro-pellets reverse micelle formation. This invc A photocatalyst within the pellets excites the surrounding oxygen in the blood to become so reactive that it can destroy adjacent cancer cells light, it turns Intl highly reactive singlet oxygen. The oxygen is so reactive thati* kills adjacent cancer cells. After the micro-pellets are injected into the body, an MRL, also known as Magnetic Resonance Imaging, locates the PEB- BLEs to then excite the oxygen. Once located, researchers then would cut a surgical hole in the patient and insert an optical fiber into the body to provide the light needed for the photo- catalyst. Compared to traditional therapies, Kopelman said PEB- BLEs does not seem to produce any adverse side effects in part because of the pellets themselves are harmless and when activated only affect cancer cells. Yong Eun Koo Lee, a research associate in the chemistry department who is working with Kopelman to develop the micro-pellets, said PEBBLEs may be more effective than more traditional cancer treatments. Oftentimes protein in the body will interfere with cancer treatments, Lee said. But PEBBLEs encases its payload within the micro-pellets, protecting it from proteins that can poten- tially disrupt the treatment process. Kopelman and his colleagues have received funding from different government agencies, including the National Cancer Institute, which provided $11.5 million toward the research and development of this technique. But as of yet, Kopelman said he and his team do not know how safe PEBBLEs is for humans, because all the clinical tests have been on rats. He added that it will take several years before the Food and Drug Administration will approve PEB- BLEs for medical use. Driverless Volswcu Stanford wins $2 mi U Unmanned vehicle beats out four other robots on 132-mile course in Nevada PRIMM, Nev. (AP) - A driverless Volkswagen won a $2 million race across the rugged Nevada desert Sunday, beating four other robot-guided vehicles that completed in a Pentagon-sponsored contest aimed at making warfare safer for humans. The race displayed major technological leaps since last year's inaugural race, when none of the self-driving vehicles crossed the finish line. Stanley the VW Touareg, designed by Stan- ford University, zipped through the 132-mile Mojave Desert course in six hours and 53 min- utes Saturday, using only its computer brain and sensors to navieite rough and twisting desert Coming in fourth was a Ford Escape Hybrid named Kat-5, designed by students in Metairie, La., who lost about a week of practice and some lost their homes when Hurricane Katrina blew into the Gulf Coast. The Humvee, which finished in seven hours and four minutes, traveled farther than any other vehi- cle last year despite completing only 7 1/2 miles of the course. A fifth vehicle, a 16-ton truck named TerraMax, was the last to finish the course Sunday, though not within the contest's 10-hour deadline. Its oper- ators paused it Saturday night so it wouldn't have to race in darkness. It's unclear how the Pentagon plans to harness the technology used in the race for military appli- cations. But Thrun said he wanted to design auto- mated systems to make next-generation cars safer for everyone, not just the military. "If it was only for the military. I wouldn't be en from lion race of the Southwest desert, including on last year's course. Teams also went back to the drawing board to improve their vehicles' artificial intel- ligence and sensing systems, which navigate the rough landscape without crashing. The vehicles were tricked out with the latest sensors, lasers, cameras and radar that feed data to onboard computers, which helped them distin- guish dangerous -boulders from tumbleweeds and decide whether chasms were too deep to cross. The robotic vehicles had to navigate .a course designed to mimic driving conditions in Iraq and Afghanistan. The course consisted of winding dirt trails and dry lake beds filled with overhanging. brush. Parts of the route forced the robots to zip through three tunnels designed to knock out their GPS signals. Only the five robots that completed the course managed to maneuver a steep 1.3-mile mountain pass known as "Beer Bottle Pass" five miles from 'y. Y...... +.....4, t fit.