Thoraiya DyerIs a cancer-free world just around the corner?
December 23rd 2006 12:13
by Marie N.
Nanomedicine is one of the most-anticipated areas of nanotechnology development. Hopes are high that it may someday be able to counterattack, eliminate, and even detect genes predisposed to cancer even before a baby is born. The question remains, when will this technology be available and who will be able to afford it? Will it destroy all forms of cancer? Keep checking this blog for more updates as I post them.
Interview with Robert A. Freitas Jr. Part 2
Question 1: How far can simple genetic engineering go towards curing diseases? Does pre-nanotechnology based technology have the potential to cure cancer and regrow organs?
Yes, of course. Genetic engineering is a very powerful technology. Pre-nanotechnology treatments for some forms of cancer already exist. The emerging discipline of tissue engineering is already heading in the direction of building tissues and organs using special scaffolds that are impregnated with appropriate cells which grow into the matrix to form cohesive new tissues. Single-organ cloning is also on the horizon. But all of these treatments and organ substitutions could be accomplished with greater reliability, executed with greater speed, and completed in a side-effect free manner, using the tools of nanorobotic medicine. There are also many kinds of treatments, particularly those related to physical trauma, that can only be dealt with efficiently using advanced nanorobotic medicine.
The way I like to think about all this is to recognize that “nanomedicine” is most simply and generally defined as the preservation and improvement of human health, using molecular tools and molecular knowledge of the human body. Nanomedicine involves the use of three conceptual classes of molecularly precise structures: nonbiological nanomaterials and nanoparticles, biotechnology-based materials and devices, and nonbiological devices including nanorobotics.
In the near term, say, the next 5 years, the molecular tools of nanomedicine will include biologically active materials with well-defined nanoscale structures, including those produced by the methods of genetic engineering. For example, one of the first uses of “nanotechnology” in treating cancer employs engineered nanoparticles of various kinds to attempt a general cure while staying within the usual drug-treatment paradigm. Kopelman’s group at the University of Michigan has developed dye-tagged nanoparticles that can be inserted into living cells as biosensors. This quickly led to nanomaterials incorporating a variety of plug-in modules, creating molecular nanodevices for the early detection and therapy of brain cancer. One type of particle is attached to a cancer cell antibody that adheres to cancer cells, and is also affixed with a contrast agent to make the particle highly visible during MRI, while also enhancing the selective cancer-killing effect during subsequent laser irradiation of the treated brain tissue.
Another example from the University of Michigan is the dendrimers, tree-shaped synthetic molecules with a regular branching structure emanating outward from a core. The outermost layer can be functionalized with other useful molecules such as genetic therapy agents, decoys for viruses, or anti-HIV agents. The next step is to create dendrimer cluster agents, multi-component nanodevices called tecto-dendrimers built up from a number of single-dendrimer modules. These modules perform specialized functions such as diseased cell recognition, diagnosis of disease state, therapeutic drug delivery, location reporting, and therapy outcome reporting. The framework can be customized to fight a particular cancer simply by substituting any one of many possible distinct cancer recognition or “targeting” dendrimers. The larger trend in medical nanomaterials is to migrate from single-function molecules to multi-module entities that can do many things, but only at certain times or under certain conditions – exemplifying a continuing, and, in my view, inevitable, technological evolution toward a device-oriented nanomedicine.
In the mid-term, the next 5 or 10 years or so, knowledge gained from genomics and proteomics will make possible new treatments tailored to specific individuals, new drugs targeting pathogens whose genomes have now been decoded, and stem cell treatments to repair damaged tissue, replace missing function, or slow aging. We will see genetic therapies and tissue engineering, and many other offshoots of biotechnology, becoming more common in medical practice. We should also see artificial organic devices that incorporate biological motors or self-assembled DNA-based structures for a variety of useful medical purposes. And we’ll also see biological robots, derived from bacteria or other motile cells, that have had their genomes re-engineered and re-programmed.
So yes, there is a lot that pre-nanotechnology, or, more properly, pre-nanorobotic medicine can do to improve human health. But the advent of medical nanorobotics will represent a huge leap forward.
via:
KurweilAi.Net
Nanomedicine is one of the most-anticipated areas of nanotechnology development. Hopes are high that it may someday be able to counterattack, eliminate, and even detect genes predisposed to cancer even before a baby is born. The question remains, when will this technology be available and who will be able to afford it? Will it destroy all forms of cancer? Keep checking this blog for more updates as I post them.
Question 1: How far can simple genetic engineering go towards curing diseases? Does pre-nanotechnology based technology have the potential to cure cancer and regrow organs?
Yes, of course. Genetic engineering is a very powerful technology. Pre-nanotechnology treatments for some forms of cancer already exist. The emerging discipline of tissue engineering is already heading in the direction of building tissues and organs using special scaffolds that are impregnated with appropriate cells which grow into the matrix to form cohesive new tissues. Single-organ cloning is also on the horizon. But all of these treatments and organ substitutions could be accomplished with greater reliability, executed with greater speed, and completed in a side-effect free manner, using the tools of nanorobotic medicine. There are also many kinds of treatments, particularly those related to physical trauma, that can only be dealt with efficiently using advanced nanorobotic medicine.
The way I like to think about all this is to recognize that “nanomedicine” is most simply and generally defined as the preservation and improvement of human health, using molecular tools and molecular knowledge of the human body. Nanomedicine involves the use of three conceptual classes of molecularly precise structures: nonbiological nanomaterials and nanoparticles, biotechnology-based materials and devices, and nonbiological devices including nanorobotics.
In the near term, say, the next 5 years, the molecular tools of nanomedicine will include biologically active materials with well-defined nanoscale structures, including those produced by the methods of genetic engineering. For example, one of the first uses of “nanotechnology” in treating cancer employs engineered nanoparticles of various kinds to attempt a general cure while staying within the usual drug-treatment paradigm. Kopelman’s group at the University of Michigan has developed dye-tagged nanoparticles that can be inserted into living cells as biosensors. This quickly led to nanomaterials incorporating a variety of plug-in modules, creating molecular nanodevices for the early detection and therapy of brain cancer. One type of particle is attached to a cancer cell antibody that adheres to cancer cells, and is also affixed with a contrast agent to make the particle highly visible during MRI, while also enhancing the selective cancer-killing effect during subsequent laser irradiation of the treated brain tissue.
Another example from the University of Michigan is the dendrimers, tree-shaped synthetic molecules with a regular branching structure emanating outward from a core. The outermost layer can be functionalized with other useful molecules such as genetic therapy agents, decoys for viruses, or anti-HIV agents. The next step is to create dendrimer cluster agents, multi-component nanodevices called tecto-dendrimers built up from a number of single-dendrimer modules. These modules perform specialized functions such as diseased cell recognition, diagnosis of disease state, therapeutic drug delivery, location reporting, and therapy outcome reporting. The framework can be customized to fight a particular cancer simply by substituting any one of many possible distinct cancer recognition or “targeting” dendrimers. The larger trend in medical nanomaterials is to migrate from single-function molecules to multi-module entities that can do many things, but only at certain times or under certain conditions – exemplifying a continuing, and, in my view, inevitable, technological evolution toward a device-oriented nanomedicine.
In the mid-term, the next 5 or 10 years or so, knowledge gained from genomics and proteomics will make possible new treatments tailored to specific individuals, new drugs targeting pathogens whose genomes have now been decoded, and stem cell treatments to repair damaged tissue, replace missing function, or slow aging. We will see genetic therapies and tissue engineering, and many other offshoots of biotechnology, becoming more common in medical practice. We should also see artificial organic devices that incorporate biological motors or self-assembled DNA-based structures for a variety of useful medical purposes. And we’ll also see biological robots, derived from bacteria or other motile cells, that have had their genomes re-engineered and re-programmed.
So yes, there is a lot that pre-nanotechnology, or, more properly, pre-nanorobotic medicine can do to improve human health. But the advent of medical nanorobotics will represent a huge leap forward.
via:
KurweilAi.Net
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Comment by Ahmed
Video Gamer Kids
Little Green Foosballs
PolyKicks
But yeah nanotechnology looks cool... I await it's further developments.
Comment by Damo