UF researchers might have found a way to make alternative fuels and cancer-treatment technology inexpensive and biodegradable.
A team of researchers has applied the same process used to make cancer-treating nanotubes to lignin, a plant waste product of bioethanol production.
The technology was created during a four-year research project to find ways to offset the costs of the production.
Currently, carbon nanotubes filled with cancer-fighting drugs are injected into patients to target cancerous tumors, but UF researchers believe the lignin tubes will be cheaper and safer than the carbon ones, which cost $500 per gram.
“You don’t have to pay for the [lignin],” said Luisa Amelia Dempere, an associate engineer at UF and a part of the research team. “It’s just waste.”
This means paper mills, fuel producers and other refineries that process organic matter could benefit from the technology too. Companies could sell plants’ cell wall polymers to offset business costs.
The new nanotubes are also more flexible than carbon tubes, which have rigid, needle-shaped shells. The researchers expect a change in material will reduce damage to proteins, membranes and DNA in treated patients.
Lignin nanotubes would also decompose faster.
Dempere said that at completion, the research team hopes to include the nanotubes as part of an independent for bioethanol energy. The system would produce little waste, promote renewable energy and make the energy source a competitive product.
Dempere said she didn’t know when the lignin nanotubes would be ready for use on humans. According to a press release, however, testing in living cells has begun.
“We’re just starting to see what the medical applications are,” she said.
