Technion's drug-free nanoparticles slow aggressive breast cancer in mice

Researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology have developed nanoparticles that slowed the growth of an aggressive form of breast cancer in laboratory studies without carrying any drug at all. The work, published in the journal ACS Nano and reported in June 2026, was led by Asst. Prof. Assaf Zinger, head of the Bioinspired Nano Engineering Lab in the Wolfson Faculty of Chemical Engineering, with doctoral student Ofri Vizenblit as lead researcher and Rawan Mhajne.

The team focused on triple-negative breast cancer, which lacks the hormone receptors and the HER2 protein that many modern breast cancer drugs target. It makes up roughly 13 percent of breast cancer cases but about 40 percent of breast cancer deaths, according to US National Institutes of Health figures cited by the Times of Israel.

Tumors often recruit macrophages, immune cells that normally fight infection, and reprogram them to help the cancer grow. The Technion particles, called MPsomes, are designed to look like white blood cells and to compete with those macrophages for the docking sites around a tumor. With the tumor-supporting cells kept out, the balance of immune cells shifts toward ones that attack the cancer. Zinger told the Press Service of Israel he believes his team is the first to show that empty particles can act this way. In female mice the tumors shrank significantly, and the treatment caused no visible harm to vital organs. Zinger said the effect was similar to that of some advanced immunotherapies already in clinical use.

Because the particles carry no chemotherapy or antibodies, the researchers hope they will cause fewer side effects. They are made from materials already classed as safe by regulators and can be produced quickly, about a liter an hour according to the team. Prof. Avi Schroeder of the Technion, who was not involved, called targeting the tumor's helper cells a unique approach. The work is still preclinical, and Zinger said his next goal is to move it into human trials; his lab is also developing particles for ovarian cancer, brain injury and childhood neurodegenerative disease.