One of the fastest growing fields in medical research currently is nanotechnology. Nanotechnology focuses on building machines on a much smaller level. Nano-robots are currently being developed to do all sort of things inside the human body. One of the main focuses for these robots is drug delivery. Researchers are trying to develop robots that are able to target specific types of cells, mainly cancer cells, and deliver drugs directly into those cells. The hope is that this will become a viable way to treat cancer because in theory it is much less destructive. This therapy would be able to target hard to reach tumors. It also has the potentiality to be highly personalized and tailored to a person's genetic sequence.
Another area of the field that is being developed is nano-fibers. These fibers are being used to make fine meshes used in surgeries and to heal open wounds. These meshes are also used in organ transplants. These technologies could also help to fix brain and spinal cord injuries as well as mend hernias.
Some of the concerns with nanotechnologies |involve their solubility and persistence in the body. There is worry that insoluble nanotechnologies will build up in the body and damage organs. There is also concern about ingesting machines and how that could affect the human body. The biggest question is whether or not these technologies will really work. There is a lot of research to be done still before this question can be answered. These concerns and more will have to be addressed for each area of the nanotechnology field. I think nanotechnologies will greatly advance the way doctors are able to care for patients. Medical care will be more individual and we will be able to treat things like cancer with greater precision and fewer side effects.
References
http://www.understandingnano.com/medicine.html
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/244972.php
I've read about Nanotech being used in Cancer research: Gold nanoparticle sniffing out Cancer tumors as they are beginning to grow.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nature.com/articles/6605810
This is quite interesting and a little nerve-wracking. Ingesting medicine is one thing, but putting a piece of mechanical and robotic material into your body is a completely different thing. I think that this is such an amazing field and it's so incredible that this technology can be made. I would personally like to see more research and trials before I would think about as a choice of personalized medicine for myself. Overall, very thought-provoking piece!
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of the Netflix show "Travelers". Nanotechnology is a scary concept, but it has been experimented on and researched so heavily that I wouldn't mind giving it a try if I had a life-threatening condition. It also sounds a lot like the genome-centered therapies that are personalized for the individual, and I am wondering if, in the future, each nano "bug" can be programmed to fit a genetic profile.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the idea of an army of nanorobots to "patrol" our bodies to search for cancer and other types of damage sounds very unsettling but also quite thrilling. I think that with all the problems that we face today with biomedical research this sounds like something very, very distant, but maybe one day we could expand the boundaries even further and have a whole army of physicians inside of us.
ReplyDeleteAs a biomedical engineering major, this sounds amazing. Sci-fi has often dabbled in the question of nanotechnologies to repair damaged tissue, being prominently featured in at least two episodes of Doctor Who. As with most technological advancements, we require strong ethical considerations related to the programming of the robots. What can they fix and what is off limits? How do we deal with a swarm deciding a natural process is wrong? The question are scary, but fascinating.
ReplyDeleteI know that nanotechnology is a different concept to grasp because the properties of matter at the "nano" level are much different that the ones we experience in everyday life. Medicine could be drastically changed by this technology but fully understanding properties of matter at this level is yet to be controlled.
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