Researchers plan to use “nanoshells” to diagnose and treat cancer.

Nanoshells are microscopic concentric spheres with silica cores and gold shells. In the lab, nanoshells are injected into an animal’s bloodstream, where “targeting” agents applied to them seek out and attach to the surface receptors of cancerous cells.

In one method, illumination with infrared light raises the cells’ temperature to 55 degrees Celsius and burns away the tumor. The use of nanoshells could prove to be a viable alternative to chemotherapy, which kills both healthy and diseased cells. Nanoshells, by contrast, would kill only cancer cells.

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