Tiny Is Better: Nanotechnology Offers Great Medical Advancements
February 7, 2010
It’s a time where the lines between computer support and human support are changing. In Nassau County computer repair means humans working on computers. In Suffolk County computer repair means humans working on computers. But in the halls of many major 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 about to alter the world. One of the major fields of change will be in the health industry.
Nanotechnology is the use of technology using miniscule materials. A nanometer is a component of measurement. Nanotechnology useunits running 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 on such a tiny scale holds great potential benefit in the medical arena. A great number of research institutions are engaged in exciting studies that could change the face of health care. Some advances are already occurring.
Presently a number of experiments are using nanotechnology in a various methods. One application 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 specific 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. Other studies have focused on creating a color coding system using nanotechnology that would create protein indicators that would attach to cancer cells making them easier to trace. Another developing use nanotechnology in the treatment of cancer is nanoshells. Nanoshells are made of minute beads with various densities 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 minimal amount of valuable cell tissue. This means that diseases and change in cell tissue could be monitored and detected sooner. Because fighting cancer successfully depends on early detection, this would be a major advance in cancer fighting technology.
Nanotechnology is a rapidly developing 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.
Comments
Got something to say?
