SpaceX Updates Starlink Privacy Policy to Allow AI Training as xAI Merger Talks and IPO Loom 
Jensen Huang Urges Taiwan Suppliers to Boost AI Chip Production Amid Surging Demand 
Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly Cut Obesity Drug Prices in China as Competition Intensifies 
China to Add Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro to National Health Insurance in 2025 
Federal Appeals Court Blocks Trump-Era Hospital Drug Rebate Plan 
SoftBank Shares Slide After Arm Earnings Miss Fuels Tech Stock Sell-Off 
Nvidia, ByteDance, and the U.S.-China AI Chip Standoff Over H200 Exports 
AstraZeneca’s LATIFY Phase III Trial of Ceralasertib Misses Primary Endpoint in Lung Cancer Study 
Vanda Pharmaceuticals Wins FDA Approval for New Motion Sickness Drug After Four Decades 
Nintendo Shares Slide After Earnings Miss Raises Switch 2 Margin Concerns 
Palantir Stock Jumps After Strong Q4 Earnings Beat and Upbeat 2026 Revenue Forecast 
Baidu Approves $5 Billion Share Buyback and Plans First-Ever Dividend in 2026 
Anthropic Eyes $350 Billion Valuation as AI Funding and Share Sale Accelerate 
Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly Cut Obesity Drug Prices in China, Boosting Access to Wegovy and Mounjaro 
A scientist from the University of Massachusetts Medical School recently found a way to improve photodynamic therapy, which basically makes use of specific light molecules to target cancer tumors. This is a relatively new discovery in the medical industry, but it is fast getting traction thanks to the multitude of potential applications.
Gang Han, Ph.D. is the one who designed the new way to take advantage of photodynamic therapy to improve upon it along with his team, Phys.org reports. Trained in biochemistry & molecular pharmacology, Han is an associate professor at the university.
He and his team explained how the carbazole-substituted BODIPY (Car-BDP) can vastly improve the results of photodynamic therapy thanks to its NIR absorption band. Since its singlet oxygen quantum yield is exceedingly high, it leads to some unique results.
"This study signals a major step forward in photodynamic therapy by developing a new class of NIR-absorbing biodegradable organic nanoparticles for a highly effective targeting and treatment of deep-tissue tumors," Han said.
The results of the study were posted on the Journal of the American Chemical Society, where Han explains that after using the PLA–PEG-FA, which is a highly biodegradable polymer to encapsulate Car-BDP, the compound formed nanoparticles that possessed small, uniformed, organic, and water-soluble properties and is able to target tumors.
This helps overcome one of the bigger challenges that stop the wider adoption of photodynamic therapy, which is how shallow the penetration to tissue is right now. Normally, this is addressed via the introduction of drugs that are non-toxic and sensitive to light. Once the drug is inside the body, a laser is tuned with the molecules of the substances in the drug, which then targets the tumor.
Han and his team are proposing to make the whole thing simpler using Car-BDP and pairing it with a lamp light that has low power density. The molecules released by this method can be tracked as well, which makes monitoring which tumors have been targeted much easier.
