Before the light can be effective in destroying cancer cells, a dye with light-absorbing molecules must be administered to the cells. The device turns on, the dye transfers the light into energy and that energy makes the cells’ own oxygen toxic — in effect, turning the cancer cells against themselves.

While other treatments also weaponize the cells’ own oxygen, this device causes a particularly serendipitous form of cell death.

“Working together, biochemistry graduate student Hailey Sanders and electrical engineering graduate student SungHoon Rho perceptively noted that the treated cells were swelling, which is the hallmark of a kind of cell death, pyroptosis, that’s particularly good at triggering the immune response,” said Bradley Smith, the Emil T. Hofman Professor of Science and co-author on the paper.

“Our goal is to induce just a little bit of pyroptotic cell death, which will then trigger the immune system to start attacking the cancer.”

In future studies, the device will be used in mice to see whether the cancer-killing response initiated in one tumor will prompt the immune system to identify and attack another cancerous tumor on its own.

O’Sullivan noted that the device, which is the size of a grain of rice, can be injected directly into a cancerous tumor and activated remotely by an external antenna. The goal is to use the device not only to deliver treatment but also to monitor the tumor’s response, adjusting signal strength and timing as needed.

This research was one of four projects funded by the first Seed Transformative Interdisciplinary Research (STIR) grants. Initiated in 2023 by the Notre Dame College of Science and College of Engineering, these grants are designed to jump-start science and engineering research projects in human health, the environment and information technologies.