In another independent study, catechol-containing SLC7A5 ligands L- and D-dopa were combined with multibranched gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) to mediate selective photothermal ablation of breast cancer cell lines, making the cancer cells more sensitive to the chemotherapy drugs cisplatin and docetaxel (Ong et al., 2017). The gene discussed is SLC7A5; the disease is breast carcinoma.