Project: Laser-Assisted Carbon Nano-Onion Photothermal Therapy: A Feasibility Study

This project is looking at developing laser‑activated carbon nano‑onions that can deliver and trigger cancer‑killing therapies with precision, offering a targeted, minimally invasive alternative to conventional treatment.

Challenge Space

Health Resistance

Prinicipal Investigator(s) and team names

Professor Silvia Giordani (PI), Dr. Diego A. Acevedo Guzman (postdoc), Aravind Kannoth Anilkumar (PhD Student)

Collaborating Institutions

Funding support

Research Ireland and the Wales Innovation Network

Project start date

1 July, 2025

End date

30 March 2027

Problem

Conventional cancer therapies, like chemotherapy and radiation, often face two major challenges: non-specific toxicity (damaging healthy tissues alongside cancerous ones) and multidrug resistance in aggressive cancers (for example, glioblastoma, pancreatic, or triple-negative breast cancer).

Conventional treatments frequently fail to deliver sufficient drug concentrations directly to the tumour without causing severe side effects.

Background

Nanomedicine uses engineered nanomaterials to bypass the limitations of conventional treatment.

The Giordani Group specialises in functionalising carbon-based nanomaterials, for example, Carbon Nano-Onions and Carbon Dots, which possess strong photostability and excellent biocompatibility.

Combining these nanomaterials with laser-assisted techniques (such as photothermal or photodynamic therapy) offers a non-invasive way to trigger targeted cancer cell death.

Solution

The project develops carbon-based nanoplatforms designed to act as targeted delivery vehicles.

By tailoring their surface chemistry, these tiny particles navigate directly to cancerous cells while ignoring healthy tissue. When activated by light or laser energy at the tumour site, the nanoplatforms release their chemotherapeutic cargo precisely where needed, heat up to destroy cancer cells, or produce cytotoxic reactive oxygen species, maximising therapeutic impact while minimising systemic side effects.