WHAT IS NANOTECHNOLOGY “Nanotechnology is science, engineering, and technology conducted at a nanoscale which is about 1 to 100 nanometers,” according to the National Nanotechnology Initiative. A nanometer is a billionth of a meter, there are 25,400,000 nanometers in an inch and a sheet of newspaper is about 100,000 nanometers thick. Putting that into perspective, if a marble were a nanometer, a meter would be the size of the Earth. Nanotechnology can be used throughout all fields of science, including chemistry, biology, physics, materials science and engineering to study and apply extremely small things. Physicist Richard Feynman introduced the concepts of nanoscience and nanotechnology with his talk titled “There’s Plenty of Room at the …show more content…
This means that we are composed of a multitude of biological nanomachines. Nanotechnology provides researchers with the opportunity to study and manipulate macromolecules in real time and during the earliest stages of cancer progression. “Nanotechnology can provide rapid and sensitive detection of cancer-related molecules, enabling scientists to detect molecular changes even when they occur only in a small percentage of cells. Nanotechnology also has the potential to generate entirely novel and highly effective therapeutic agents” (Benefits of Nanotechnology). Ultimately, the use of nanoscale materials for cancer comes down to its ability to deliver and/or act as the therapy or diagnostic, its ability to actively accumulate at the tumor site, to target cancer cells, and to be delivered across biological …show more content…
Cancer, Cleveland Clinic. “Abraxane.” Abraxane (Paclitaxel Protein-Bound) Chemotherapy Drug Information, chemocare.com/chemotherapy/drug-info/abraxane.aspx.
Cancer, Cleveland Clinic. “Doxil ®.” Doxil - Drug Information - Chemocare, chemocare.com/chemotherapy/drug-info/doxil.aspx.
MacRae, Michael. “Top 5 Advances in Medical Technology.” ASME.org, Mar. 2016, www.asme.org/engineering-topics/articles/bioengineering/top-5-advances-medical-technology.
“Nanotechnology in Cancer Treatment.” Nanotechnology in Cancer Treatment, 2016 Hawk's Perch Technical Writing, LLC, www.understandingnano.com/cancer-treatment-nanotechnology.html.
“Safety of Nanotechnology.” National Cancer Institute, www.cancer.gov/sites/ocnr/cancer-nanotechnology/safety.
S. A. Mousa and D. J. Bharali, “Nanotechnology-based detection and targeted therapy in cancer: nano-bio paradigms and applications,” Cancers, vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 2888–2903, 2011.
Sutradhar, Kumar Bishwajit, and Md. Lutful Amin. “Nanotechnology in Cancer Drug Delivery and Selective Targeting.” International Scholarly Research Notices, Hindawi, 16 Jan. 2014,
Over the years, surgery has made tremendous progress while changing human perspective; viewed as “no more science than butchery” a couple of centuries ago to now considered to be a solution for many health care problems threatening humans, like cancer, heart disease and kidney failure. Nevertheless, surgery has not been perfected to a level that provides successful results every time it is performed on patients. For example, surgery done to remove tumors in cancer patients result in only 45% of individuals to be cured. However, in order to be successful, the surgical procedure has to be carried out incredibly precisely and incomplete removal of tumors can decrease survival rate. Therefore, surgeons have to be able to recognize diseased tissue and distinguish it between healthy tissues. But even with the use of radioactive tracers and visuals, surgeons are not able to identify the exact site of the unhealthy tissue and its boundaries. Thus, almost 40% of the time cancerous cells are left behind because even the best qualified surgeons are not successful at the nanotechnological scale of tissue.
Amandi Hiyare: Before forming my research question, I had a discussion with my research project coordinator “Lisa Pope” who told me that the Flinders nanotechnology research team has been developing microbial catheters. Then on Monday I had an interview with Professor Joe Shapter who told me that your team was leading this project. So I was wondering whether you would be able to provide me with some detailed information about this innovation?
In the article “Pinpointing Cancer Fight,” Liz Szabo states the uses of nanotechnology and how researchers are attempting to use this advancement to fight cancer. She defines that nanotechnology is a type of technology that creates devices on an atomic level; this equipment can allow people such as researchers to use its ability to detect cancerous cells as well as treat them. Szabo remains a neutral tone as she states that while some are against the idea of using nanotechnology since there are many risks, others are optimistic that it may lead to transformational results. She presents a list of some products developed through nanotechnology and explains its usage in addition to mentioning the failure of those nanotech products. Szabo provides
Wang, K., Wu, X., & Huang, J. (2013, February 28). Cancer stem cell theory: therapeutic implications for nanomedicine. Retrieved December 12, 2013, from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3589204/
It concerns all specialties of medecine, from pathology and oncology to cosmetic and reconstructive surgery.Currently, nanomedicine applications have been approved and are currently used for diagnostic procedures, body and organ imaging, surgical tools, drug delivery systems and gene therapies. [5,6]
Nanomedicine is offering incredible and innovative therapies like cancer nanomedicine, nanosurgery, and tissue engineering. In cancer nanomedicine, they use “targeted drug delivery” to target the tumor itself and avoid harming the normal, healthy cells (Berger, 2017). This in return, offers a more effective treatment with better outcomes and less side effects. In cancer nanomedicine, nanoparticles are used as tumor destroying mediators that use high temperatures to destroy them. These nanoparticles have to be injected into the tumor, then they have to be activated to produce this heat and then they are destroyed via a magnetic field, X-rays, or light (Berger,
Nanotechnology, as described by Merriam-Webster Dictionary (2014) is, “ the science of manipulating materials on an atomic or molecular scale especially to build microscopic devices”. In recognizing the complexity associated with this definition, it is safe to say that many different achievements as well as controversies have come along with it. Although the category of nanotechnology is extremely broad the research attached to it is growing at a rapid pace as well . There are many unexplored areas that have caused researchers as well as the public to question what types of positive or negative affects it might have on our world as a whole. Because of its strong presences in our society today, it is beneficial to become educated on this innovative form of technology to shape critical opinions of its purpose.
Blanco E, Ferrari M. Emerging nanotherapeutic strategies in breast cancer. Breast (Edinburgh, Scotland). 2014 Feb;23(1):10-8. PubMed PMID: 24215984. Epub 2013/11/13. eng.
Since 2000, nanotechnology has been funded by the U.S. government which has created the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) to guide research and monitor its development [1]. Advocators of NNI “assert that nanotechnology is one of the most important emerging and enabling technologies and that U.S. competitiveness, technolo...
Nanoparticles are so small in size that they can enter cells and organelles to interact with DNA, proteins, enzymes while circulating throughout the body. Therefore, nanotechnology is used in detecting disease in a very small volume of cells or tissue [1].As mention above; commonly used nanoparticles are such as, gold nanoparticle, silver nanoparticle, quantum dots and magnetic nanoparticle. Gold nanoparticles have unique stability against oxidation which makes it useful in diagnostic. Its benefits such as much reduced or no toxicity, much better contrast agents for imaging, and surfaced-enhanced and distance- and refractive index dependent spectroscopic properties compare to other nanoparticles, makes it the best choice of selection for enabling early diseases detection [2,3].
What is Nanotechnology? “Nanotechnology is the manipulation or self-assembly of individual atoms, molecules, or molecular clusters into structures to create materials and devices with new or vastly different properties. Nanotechnology can work from the top down (which means reducing the size of the smallest structures to the nanoscale… or the bottom up (which involves manipulating individual atoms and molecules into nanostructures and more closely resembles chemistry or biology)” (Joseph & Morrison, 2006, p.3, para. 2).
Nanotechnology includes nanorobots which are so small that they can be injected into the human bloodstream after which the nanorobots can do investigations or repair at cellular level. Nanorobots could optimize the delivery of pharmaceutical products, these means that medicines which are targeted on a specific type of cells can be delivered to only those cells by the nanorobots. The robots can attach to the cells after which they can inject the drug into the target cells. This could be a great breakthrough for cancer treatments such as chemotherapy because there is a minimal chance of injecting healthy cells with the drug and therefor negative side effects can be avoided.
The active pursuit of knowledge in nanotechnology could revolutionize the treatment and detection of various diseases in the future. Nanotechnology is the branch of science that focuses on the development of technology at the molecular scale, including the development of instruments that have been applied to many fields, such as the automotive, cosmetic, and fabric industries. In medicine, nanotechnology has already been applied to the treatment of diabetes, the production of prosthetic limbs, and the improvement of life for the paralyzed, and many believe it is also the key to curing cancer and even immortality.
In an earth that is full of cell phones, laptops, PC’s, palm pilots, flat screen televisions, I-pods, EZ pass, and many other gizmos and gadgets, it is hard to imagine our universe becoming even more high-tech. Many people could not make it through a week, or even a couple of days without a cell phone, car, or television. To make our world even more complicated, the continuous emergence of nanotechnology is creeping upon us, and it will affect out lives whether we want it to or not. Nanotechnology could help us in different fields of medicine, yet it could also be a threat to the human identity. Whatever the case may be, new technology could end up showing us that our human meaning is much more vulnerable than we thought!
Nanomedicine is the medical application of nanotechnology. Nanomedicine ranges from the medical applications of nanomaterials and biological devices, to nanoelectronic biosensors, and even possible future applications of molecular nanotechnology such as biological machines. Current problems for nanomedicine involve understanding the issues related to toxicity and environmental impact of nanoscale materials (materials whose structure is on the scale of nanometers, i.e. billionths of a meter).