Cancer disease kills a lot of people worldwide than HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined. Despite billions of dollars invested into drug development and decades of research, selectively eradicating cancer cells has remained an elusive goal. Chemotherapies, a common class of cancer treatments, are intended to kill the fast-growing cells that form tumors. However, these drugs travel throughout the entire body, and often affect normal, healthy tissue along with cancer cells, causing side effects such as hair loss, nausea, anemia, and even nerve and muscle problems. Furthermore, resistance to these drugs can arise and can cause even initially successful treatment regimens to fail. Working at the confluence of nanotechnology, engineering and medicine, Von Maltzahn of Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences & Technology has used the potential of nanoparticles to reduce side effects and overpower drug resistance mechanisms by more powerfully concentrating external energy and targeted therapeutics in tumors. The nanoparticles are designed to be injected intravenously, where they circulate through the blood stream and progressively concentrate at the tumor site by infiltrating pores in rapidly growing tumor blood vessels. Once accumulated in the tumor, the antennas can be precisely heated with a non-invasive, near-infrared light to specifically kill the cancerous cells.