NASA Tech Briefs has included Boris Rubinsky's research on irreversible electroporation (IRE) a key technology development of 2007.

While curing cancer is usually the job of medical doctors, biomedical engineers Rubinsky and colleagues at Virginia Tech have invented a promising electronic therapy.

Electroporation is a phenomenon that increases the permeability of a cell from none, to a reversible opening, to an irreversible opening. With the latter, the cell will die. The researchers applied this irreversible concept to the targeting of cancer cells.

According to Rafael V. Davalos of Virginia Tech, Rubinsky's collaborator on this project and former graduate student (M.S.’95 ME, Ph.D.’02 ME/BioE): “IRE removes tumors by irreversibly opening tumor cells through a series of short, intense electric pulses from small electrodes placed in or around the body. This application creates permanent openings in the pores in the cells of the undesirable tissue. The openings eventually lead to the death of the cells without the use of potentially harmful chemotherapeutic drugs. We did not use any drugs, the cells were destroyed, and the vessel architecture was preserved.”

"I've been working in this area of minimally invasive surgery for 30 years now. I truly think that this will be viewed as one of the most important advances in the treatment of tumors in years. I am very excited about the potential of this technique. It may have tremendous applications in many areas of medicine and surgery," said Rubinsky.