MIT researchers developed injectable nanoantennas that generate localized electric fields to destroy drug-resistant glioblastoma cells while leaving healthy brain tissue unharmed, MIT reported on September 9, 2026.
The system, named HITMAN, stands for highly-localized electric-field-induced tumor therapy using magnetically actuated nanoantennas. The research team, led by Deblina Sarkar of the MIT Media Lab, published the findings in Science Advances. Glioblastoma remains one of the most treatment-resistant brain cancers, carrying a median survival time of 12 to 15 months under current care standards.
Each nanoantenna measures roughly 150 nanometers wide, or about one-hundredth the width of a human hair. Doctors could inject the devices through the skull. Once in place, an external low-frequency magnetic field set no higher than 200 kilohertz penetrates the skull and activates them without causing heat damage to surrounding tissue. The field stresses magnetostrictive components within the devices, deforming an internal piezoelectric film to produce localized electric fields.
Preclinical trial results
Those electric fields selectively disrupt glioblastoma cells by interfering with their internal bioelectric currents. The disruption induces protein unfolding, membrane damage, and endoplasmic reticulum stress, shutting down the cell's production of functional proteins. Cancer cells succumb to this mechanism because their high proliferation rate increases protein-folding demands and their membrane compositions are abnormal compared to healthy cells.
Tests on chemo-resistant tumor cells obtained from Mayo Clinic patients showed the technique destroyed 52.2 percent of the targeted cancer cells. That rate is more than five times the performance of temozolomide, the standard chemotherapy drug. Healthy neurons and astrocytes remained intact throughout the trials.
In orthotopic mouse models implanted with patient-derived tumor cells, the treatment reduced tumor growth and extended median survival by more than 50 percent. Tests on the mice revealed no detectable toxicity in the brain or major organs, including the kidneys, liver, spleen, lungs, and heart. Cancer cell colony formation dropped from between 112 and 150 colonies in control groups to 26 in the treated group.
Sarkar and colleagues previously developed an alternative delivery system in 2025 called circulatronics. That method integrates electronic devices with living cells so they evade immune detection, cross the blood-brain barrier, and reach brain tissue following an injection into a patient's arm.
