Nanotechnology in Medicine
September 1st 2007 04:08
Small is beautiful but with nanotechnology small can become powerful. Disease and ill health are largely caused by damages at the molecular and cellular level. Today's surgical tools are, at this scale, large and crude and from the viewpoint of a cell, even a fine scalpel is a blunt instrument more suited to tear and injure than heal and cure. Modern surgery works only because cells have a remarkable ability to regroup, bury their dead and heal over the injury.
Nanotechnology, "the manufacturing technology of the 21st century," will help build a broad range of complex molecular machines (including, molecular computers). It will let us build fleets of computer controlled molecular tools much smaller than a human cell and built with the accuracy and precision of drug molecules. Such tools will let medicine, for the first time; intervene in a sophisticated and controlled way at the cellular and molecular level. They could remove obstructions in the circulatory system, kill cancer cells, or take over the function of sub cellular organelles. Just as today we have the artificial heart, so in the future we could have the artificial mitochondrion.
Equally dramatic, nanotechnology will give us new instruments to examine tissue in unprecedented detail. Sensors smaller than a cell, could give us an inside and exquisitely precise look at ongoing metabolic functions at a molecular level. Tissue either chemically fixed or flash frozen could be analyzed literally down to the molecular level, giving a completely detailed "snapshot" of cellular, sub cellular and molecular activities. Nano-pharmacology, a field currently being developed can use nano-engineered delivery mechanisms to release pharmaceuticals (or other bio-reactive substances like oxygen) into the body.
Nanotechnology is expected to touch almost every aspect of our lives, right down to the water we drink and the air we breathe. Nanotechnology will improve our lives in any area that would benefit from the development of better, faster, stronger, smaller, and cheaper systems. The medical area of nanotechnology application is one of the most potentially valuable, with many projected benefits to humanity.
Nanotechnology, "the manufacturing technology of the 21st century," will help build a broad range of complex molecular machines (including, molecular computers). It will let us build fleets of computer controlled molecular tools much smaller than a human cell and built with the accuracy and precision of drug molecules. Such tools will let medicine, for the first time; intervene in a sophisticated and controlled way at the cellular and molecular level. They could remove obstructions in the circulatory system, kill cancer cells, or take over the function of sub cellular organelles. Just as today we have the artificial heart, so in the future we could have the artificial mitochondrion.
Equally dramatic, nanotechnology will give us new instruments to examine tissue in unprecedented detail. Sensors smaller than a cell, could give us an inside and exquisitely precise look at ongoing metabolic functions at a molecular level. Tissue either chemically fixed or flash frozen could be analyzed literally down to the molecular level, giving a completely detailed "snapshot" of cellular, sub cellular and molecular activities. Nano-pharmacology, a field currently being developed can use nano-engineered delivery mechanisms to release pharmaceuticals (or other bio-reactive substances like oxygen) into the body.
Nanotechnology is expected to touch almost every aspect of our lives, right down to the water we drink and the air we breathe. Nanotechnology will improve our lives in any area that would benefit from the development of better, faster, stronger, smaller, and cheaper systems. The medical area of nanotechnology application is one of the most potentially valuable, with many projected benefits to humanity.
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Comment by Anisha
Nano Facts
Comment by Harry
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A couple of tips as well
Your short title for this post should probably be "nanotechnology medicine". Try to think of what most people would type into a search engine in order to find the content of your post. This is what the short title is for.
Try to include some images. They really help to make a post more engaging.
Keep up the good work
Comment by Harry
Sydney Diary
Personals
Brisbane Diarystar
Zoo Parent
Comment by Anisha
Nano Facts