Narrator:        This is Science Today. The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory was the first national laboratory to unite with a major cancer center. Dennis Matthews, an associate director of the UC Davis Cancer Center, which is a designated National Cancer Institute center, also works at the Livermore lab in biotechnology and bioengineering.

Matthews:      I think it's a great opportunity for not only researchers out there - cancer researchers and cancer physicians - but certainly for the public, too. Because what they're seeing is their investment in such a facility as Lawrence Livermore and the researchers here and the kind of applied research they do now being spun off it from its main weapons or national defense mission to - well, can we apply some of these same technologies, albeit modified to combat cancer?

Narrator:        The research team is currently working to develop a clinical prototype of the first compact proton therapy machine for cancer treatment.

Matthews:      Our main goal here was to bring this technology to everyone and the way to do that first and foremost was to create a system that was far more affordable and far more compact.

Narrator:        For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.