The physics behind killing cancer with light (photodynamic therapy) | with Stephen Bown

What if you could kill a cancer cell without touching the healthy tissue around it? That is the central promise of photodynamic therapy, and Stephen Bown has spent forty years making good on it. Filmed at the Royal Institution on 29 May 2026. PDT works by combining two ingredients that are harmless on their own: a drug called a photosensitiser that makes tissue sensitive to light, and light itself.

Courtesy of The Royal Institution on YouTube. Watch on YouTube ↗

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