Nanotechnology

&

Medicine

Nanoscience

• The prefix “nano”is a Greek word for “dwarf”• One nanometer (nm) is equal to one-billionth of a

meter• About a width of 6 carbon atoms or 10 water

molecules• A human hair is approximately 80,000 nm wide• Red blood cells is 7000 nm wide• Atoms are smaller than 1 nanometer• Molecules and some proteins are between 1 nm and

above

Nanoscience

• The concept of nanotechnology was first coined by Richard Feynman in 1959 in his lecture “There’s plenty of room at the bottom”

• Manipulating material at a scale of individual atoms and molecules

• Imagining the whole Encyclopedia Britannica written on head of a pin

Nanoscience

• At IBM in the US, a technique called electron beam lithography was used to create nanostructures and devices as small as 40 to 70 nm in the early 1970s

Nanotechnology in Medicine

Nanotechnology is a new field with many possible uses, medicine being one of them

Nanotechnology• “The manufacturing technology of the 21st

century"

• The study and manufacture of devices of molecular dimensions, in the range of nanometers or one-billionth of a meter

• Most of industrial manufacturing processes are based on top-down technologies -- i.e., they take larger objects and make them smaller yielding products of fairly high precision and complexity

Nanotechnology

DNA serves as a data-storage system, transmitting digital instructions to

molecular machines e.g., the ribosomes, that manufacture protein molecules.

Nanomedicine

• Some medicines are made through biotechnological processes, for example those using recombinant DNA (human hepatitis vaccine)

• Under these processes the DNA of living creatures (usually bacteria) is altered

• Nanotechnology represents a similar approach to the manufacture of pharmaceuticals and other goods.

Nanorobots: Medicine of the Future

• What are they?• Nanorobots are nanodevices that will be used for

the purpose of maintaining and protecting the human body against pathogens.

• They will have a diameter of about 0.5 to 3 microns and will be constructed out of parts with dimensions in the range of 1 to 100 nanometers

Nanorobots

• The powering of the nanorobots can be done by metabolizing local glucose and oxygen for energy

• Other sources of energy within the body can also be used to supply the necessary energy for the devices

• They will have simple onboard computers capable of performing around 1000 or fewer computations per second.

Nanorobots

• A navigational network may be installed in the body, which may provide high positional accuracy to all passing nanorobots

• This will enable the physician to keep track of the various devices in the body

“A microscopic machine roaming through the bloodstream, injecting or taking samples for identification and determining the concentrations of different compounds"

A single inhaled nanorobot reaches, deeply inspired into the lungs, enters an alveolar duct and attaches to the tissue surface.

Mechanical drilling of a small tumor mass by a nanorobot

Therapeutic Applications of Nanotechnology in Medicine

• Nanotechnology also theoretically allows the mimicking of natural biological processes e.g., repair of damaged tissues – Using nanotech to build scaffoldings of

artificial molecules that bone cells often adhere to and grow bones on

– Broken bones would heal much faster.• Transport of oxygen within the body by creating

an artificial red blood cell

Therapeutic Applications of Nanotechnology in Medicine

To cure skin diseases, a cream containing nanorobots may be used it may: - Remove the right amount of dead skin - Remove excess oils - Add missing oils - Apply the right amounts of natural moisturising compounds- Achieve the elusive goal of 'deep pore

cleaning' by actually reaching down into pores and cleaning them out.

Therapeutic Applications of Nanotechnology in Medicine

A mouthwash full of smart nanomachines could identify and destroy pathogenic bacteria while allowing the harmless flora of the mouth to flourish in a healthy ecosystem

Four remote-controlled nanorobots examine and clean the subocclusal surfaces of a patient's teeth, near the gumline.

Dental Robots

Therapeutic Applications of Nanotechnology in Medicine

Medical nanodevices could augment the immune system by finding and disabling unwanted bacteria and viruses.

A NANOROBOT NIBBLING ON AN ATHEROSCLEROTIC DEPOSIT IN A BLOOD VESSEL

“Stinger" nanorobot grabs a sick T lymphocyte and injects a glucocorticoid designed to induce cellular apoptosis.

NANOTECHNOLOGY

• GOALS• Construction of a nano-assembler

– A machine capable of building nanoprobes on a grand scale

• The next step would be self-replication of nanoprobes- mitosis

• Rough estimates say that this will be reached in about 10-20 years

NANOTECHNOLOGY

• PREDICTIONS• Predicting the future of nanotechnology is

much like trying to predict the remainder of a motion picture from a single frame

• Although the future of medicine lies unclear, it is certain that nanotechnology will have a significant impact

Thank you!...