Nanotechnology: Taking Medicine To Another Level

It’s a time where the lines between computer support and human support are blurring. In Nassau County computer repair means people fixing computers. In Suffolk County computer repair means people fixing computers. But in the labs of esteemed universities studies are underway that would turn that notion on its head. Computer repair would mean vital body immune response would be done by miniature computers. Nanotechnology has evolved and it is poised to change everything. One of the major fields of change will be in medical technology.

Nanotechnology is the application of technology using very small things. A nanometer is a unit of dimension. Nanotechnology useunits between 1 and 100 nanometers. If you took 800,000 nanometers and set them side by side it would be about the width of a hair. That’s small stuff. Being able to operate and manipulate elements at such a small level holds great potential benefit in the medical arena. Many institutions and researchers are engaged in exciting studies that could change the face of health care. Some changes are already occurring.

Currently there are many different studies using nanotechnology in a variety of ways. One area of interest is in how nanotechnology can assist in diagnosing and treating cancer. One of the biggest drawbacks to cancer treatments such as chemotherapy, is that it can’t specifically target only cancer cells. Healthy and unhealthy cells are assaulted. With nanotechnology only cancer cells can be treated. There are theories and trials that employee RNA strands that can find and attach to cancer cells. Once attached these strands can deposit cancer fighting drugs into the afflicted cells. Research has also considered the possibility of creating a color coding system using nanotechnology that would create protein indicators that would find and link to cancer cells for easy identification. Another developing use nanotechnology in the fight against cancer is nanoshells. Nanoshells are made of minute beads with various thicknesses made of gold. These shells are attracted to cancer cells, surround them and then are heated with near infrared light which destroys the cancer cells, but doesn’t harm healthy cells in close proximity.

Nanodevices would be tiny enough to operate inside a cell. They would be little enough that they could engage proteins and DNA. They would be able to monitor the cell and detect disease using a smaller quantity of cell tissue. Changes in cell tissue indicating disease could be monitored and detected much earlier in the process. Since success in fighting cancer often depends on early detection, this would be a major advance in cancer fighting technology.

Nanotechnology is a quickly becoming an area of science that combines many disciplines including; physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, and many other sciences including political and social science. With ongoing discoveries in all different fields, the advent of Nanotechnology will be fully upon us.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 9th, 2010 at 2:39 am and is filed under Technology and Gadgets . You can follow any responses to this entry through the comments feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.