By: Carys Wee

On May 9, 2022, scientists discovered that a worm called Caenorhabditis elegans, or C. elegans, can detect cancer by using a harmless tool called “worm on a chip.”

C. elegans are about one millimeter (0.04 inch) long, and transparent. This means that researchers can put them on the chip that lets the worm wiggle toward cancer cells. A physicist named Enrico Lanza says that the worms’ progress can be identified by the light they create.

The new tool is pain-free and will provide an effortless way to detect cancer. Scientists designed the chip, which looks like a microscope slide, to be handheld. It has three craters. Human cells are placed on one side and possibly-cancerous cells are placed on the other. The worms are placed in the middle. If they move toward the potentially-cancerous cells, lung cancer is present.

Biotechnologist Shin Sik Choi of Myongji University in Seoul, South Korea, helped develop the technology.

Choi explains that the worm on a chip takes advantage of the worm’s natural smelling ability. “In nature,” he says, “a rotten apple on the ground is the best place where we are able to find the worms. And cancer cells release many of the same odor molecules as that rotten apple.”

In the future, C. elegans may help people figure out if they have cancer, so it can be treated.