Rice University Art Car features engineering researchers

Wacky, weird and gold-studded, Rice University’s 2009 Art Car, Unconventional Wisdom, took Rice’s unconventional approach to cancer therapy to the streets of Houston. The car, inspired by nanoshells—tiny gold beads developed by Professor Naomi Halas of electrical and computer engineering and chemistry—was replete with 5,000 gold ping-pong balls, as well as the “all-girl cancer-killing team” of Halas and her fellow collaborator, Professor Jennifer West of bioengineering. Proven effective at destroying cancerous tumors in laboratory animals, nanoshells have led to a promising experimental cancer treatment for humans, AuroLase. While Rice provided the ride at the 22nd Annual Houston Art Car Parade, Professors Halas and West were the real driving force.