Nanotechnology: Taking Medicine To Another Level

We live in an age where the lines between computer support and human support are blurring. In Nassau County computer repair means people working on computers. In Suffolk County computer repair means people 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 carried out by miniature computers. Nanotechnology has evolved and it is about to alter the world. One of the major fields of change will be in medical technology.

Nanotechnology is the use of technology using very small things. A nanometer is a unit of dimension. Nanotechnology useelements 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. Many institutions and researchers are engaged in exciting studies that could lead to a major revolution in health care. Some changes are already happening.

Presently a number of experiments are using nanotechnology in a variety of ways. One area of interest is in how nanotechnology can help 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. Normal and cancer cells are attacked. With nanotechnology specific cells can be treated. There are studies that employee RNA strands that can find and attach to cancer cells. These strands, when connected can release anti-cancer agents into the afflicted cells. Research has also considered the possibility of creating a color coding system using nanotechnology that would create protein indicators that would find and link to cancer cells for easy identification. An additional application 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 small enough to enter a cell. They would be little enough that they could engage proteins and DNA. Nanodevices could 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 much earlier in the process. Since success in fighting cancer often 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 world of Nanotechnology will be fully upon us.

No tags for this post.

Related posts

• No related posts.