THE ADVANTAGES OF NANOMEDICINE
There are many positives to embracing nanomedicine.
For starters, it would mean less intrusive and less harsh treatment of patients. Cancer is a good example in this case – currently, most conventional cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy are based around the fact that most of the time cancer cells die earlier than healthy ones. The strong drugs used in chemotherapy destroy health tissue as well as cancerous tissue. However, with nanomedicine this may change: scientists have been able to fit cancer-searching proteins and tumour-destroying drugs into nanomaterials the size of a human hair. Recently, MIT student Geoffrey Von Maltzahn (2009) discovered a technique that utilised gold nanoparticles to target malignant tumours and kill cancerous cells while sparing healthy cells. This will allow for a much higher percentage of patients to survive the process of treatment, as all the damage will be focused only on the area needing treatment.
But nanoparticles are sometimes not enough, as we would need the nanotechnology to do specific tasks for us, such as locating and destroying cells, or possibly replacing fragments of DNA. This is where nanorobotics would come in, and it would thus mean that people with diseases like cancer and diabetes could be cured. Cancer could be destroyed using the method above. The microscopic robots could monitor levels of blood sugar in a patient's body, thus making life easier for people with diabetes - in fact, eventually, the robots could automatically release insulin when they detect that the level is low, preventing the need to have daily injections. There has been talk if a robot that could even alter some DNA to prevent genetic diseases. The lives of many individuals around the globe would be drastically improved with the acceptance of nanomedicine.
Further into the future, nanomedicine could result in much easier treatment for individuals, drastically reducing the need for doctors and eliminating the need to go to hospital for some major diseases and disorders. Richard Feynman, who developed the idea of nanotechnology, coined the term ‘swallowing the doctor’, which he used to describe the potential use of nanotechnology to cure illnesses by simply swallowing a pill with the required nanoparticles. These pills would contain the aforementioned nanorobots that would release the required nanoparticles that would then target and destroy the virus/bacteria/damaged cells. This would be similar to how antibiotics are used today, but since the nanotech behind the medicine could be easily programmed to do a specific function, it would be hundreds of times more effective. Although this technology is still a long time away, it is not hard to envision such a future. In fact, with antibiotics slowly becoming resistant to common bacteria, now may be the perfect time to begin seriously researching and developing the required nanotechnologies and concepts that will allow these sorts of ideas to thrive.
For starters, it would mean less intrusive and less harsh treatment of patients. Cancer is a good example in this case – currently, most conventional cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy are based around the fact that most of the time cancer cells die earlier than healthy ones. The strong drugs used in chemotherapy destroy health tissue as well as cancerous tissue. However, with nanomedicine this may change: scientists have been able to fit cancer-searching proteins and tumour-destroying drugs into nanomaterials the size of a human hair. Recently, MIT student Geoffrey Von Maltzahn (2009) discovered a technique that utilised gold nanoparticles to target malignant tumours and kill cancerous cells while sparing healthy cells. This will allow for a much higher percentage of patients to survive the process of treatment, as all the damage will be focused only on the area needing treatment.
But nanoparticles are sometimes not enough, as we would need the nanotechnology to do specific tasks for us, such as locating and destroying cells, or possibly replacing fragments of DNA. This is where nanorobotics would come in, and it would thus mean that people with diseases like cancer and diabetes could be cured. Cancer could be destroyed using the method above. The microscopic robots could monitor levels of blood sugar in a patient's body, thus making life easier for people with diabetes - in fact, eventually, the robots could automatically release insulin when they detect that the level is low, preventing the need to have daily injections. There has been talk if a robot that could even alter some DNA to prevent genetic diseases. The lives of many individuals around the globe would be drastically improved with the acceptance of nanomedicine.
Further into the future, nanomedicine could result in much easier treatment for individuals, drastically reducing the need for doctors and eliminating the need to go to hospital for some major diseases and disorders. Richard Feynman, who developed the idea of nanotechnology, coined the term ‘swallowing the doctor’, which he used to describe the potential use of nanotechnology to cure illnesses by simply swallowing a pill with the required nanoparticles. These pills would contain the aforementioned nanorobots that would release the required nanoparticles that would then target and destroy the virus/bacteria/damaged cells. This would be similar to how antibiotics are used today, but since the nanotech behind the medicine could be easily programmed to do a specific function, it would be hundreds of times more effective. Although this technology is still a long time away, it is not hard to envision such a future. In fact, with antibiotics slowly becoming resistant to common bacteria, now may be the perfect time to begin seriously researching and developing the required nanotechnologies and concepts that will allow these sorts of ideas to thrive.
