Cancer Fighting Fungus

A fungus has been discovered that can fight cancer in according to research in Advanced Functional Materials. This fungus is known as arthrobotrys oligospora. The researchers discovered that the nanoparticles made by this fungus can stimulate the immune system which in turns can destroy cancer cells. This was discovered after the head associate professor biomedical engineering ad the University of Tennesee, Knoxville, Mingjun Zhang, turned to nature in seeking to solve sciences unanswered questions. Zhang discovered that the fungus trap roundworms which produce nanocomposites which are made up of highly uniform nanoparticles. The nanoparticles serve as a stimulant for the immune system within a white blood cell.  This procedure has been practiced on mice and has found that nanoparticles can shrink ovarian cancer tumors.

There are still a huge amount of unanswered questions out there that nature can potentially be used to solve in the future. Nano-structures, which are nature produced, can evolve to potentially any structure. This allows for a potentially unlimited amount of possibilities for enhancing our lives.

I found this article interesting because our generation will most likely have a great struggle with cancer in our later years with all the advances in life that our potentially harmful when used in excess, and of course our generation does not carry good self control and abuses a lot of substances. Knowing that the fungus can evolve based off how the scientists want in order to attack the cancer cells that are growing is a huge booster to my hope that we all will not die at the age of 50 from multiple types of cancer.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/253768.php