Metal Detectors

Cisplatin – a chemotherapy drug based on the metal platinum – has been used to treat cancers for many years; however, resistance to platinum has become an issue, prompting researchers to look for other metal compounds. Researchers tracked the activity of different compounds based on the metals zinc (top left), osmium (top right) and calcium (bottom) in ovarian cancer cells using x-ray fluorescence. Colours shown represent the compound’s concentration – white being strongest. The team could see that one, called organo-osmium FY26, made its way into and was concentrated in the cell’s energy-producing mitochondria (highlighted in red top right), killing the cell from the inside. Organo-osmium FY26 is fifty times more active and also more selective than cisplatin, making it a promising candidate for a new cancer treatment.

Written by Katie Panteli

Katie Panteli

Writer

Katie, a Warwick Biomed graduate, works for a science-publishing house in London with some of the world's most respected scientific minds. She's most interested in human biology, anything and everything that makes us tick.

• Images from work by Dr. Carlos Sanchez-Cano and colleagues
• Department of Chemistry, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK
• Image copyright held by original authors
• Research published in Chemistry – A European Journal, January 2017