Oct 11, 2015 05:46 AM EDT By Rashmi Kalia, UniversityHerald Reporter

A new study suggests that synthetic diamonds are effective at detecting early-stage cancerous tumors through magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the daily beast reports.

The study was published in Nature Communications on Friday. The study was performed by a group of physicists from the University of Sydney.

The study explores diamonds' ability to light up cancer cells that are generally undetectable. The researchers focused the study on nano diamonds. 

An earlier study conducted by the Northwestern University published in Science Translational Medicine found that attaching diamonds to chemotherapy drugs increased the effectiveness of the drug. The researchers said that the size and non-toxicity of nano-diamonds makes them immune to any attacks from the immune system and kidneys.

It was this study that motivated the University of Sydney physics professor David Reilly to take up the research that explores the benefits of gems.

"We knew nano-diamonds were of interest for delivering drugs during chemotherapy because they are largely non-toxic and non-reactive," said Reilly.

"We thought we could build on these non-toxic properties realizing that diamonds have magnetic characteristics enabling them to act as beacons in MRIs. We effectively turned a pharmaceutical problem into a physics problem."

In order to study the nano-diamond's ability to detect cancerous tumors, the researchers aligned atoms inside a diamond so they created a signal detectable by an MRI scanner.

The hyperpolarized nano-diamonds were attached to specific cancer-fighting molecules, so that they could be tracked throughout the body. The nano diamonds provided a roadmap of the cancer cells traveling in the body.

"This is a great example of how quantum physics research tackles real-world problems," says Reilly. "In this case opening the way for us to image and target cancers long before they become life-threatening."

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