Category Archives: Nano Medicine

Nanorobots in Medicine

Future applications of nanomedicine will be based on the ability to build nanorobots. In the future these nanorobots could actually be programmed to repair specific diseased cells, functioning in a similar way to antibodies in our natural healing processes.

Developing Nanorobots for Medicine

Design analysis for a cell repair nanorobot: The Ideal Gene Delivery Vector: Chromallocytes, Cell Repair Nanorobots for Chromosome Repair Therapy

Design analysis for an antimicrobial nanorobot: Microbivores: Artifical Mechanical Phagocytes using Digest and Discharge Protocol

A Mechanical Artificial Red Cell: Exploratory Design in Medical Nanotechnology

Nanorobots in Medicine: Future Applications

The elimination of bacterial infections in a patient within minutes, instead of using treatment with antibiotics over a period of weeks.

The ability to perform surgery at the cellular level, removing individual diseased cells and even repairing defective portions of individual cells.

Significant lengthening of the human lifespan by repairing cellular level conditions that cause the body to age.

Nanomedicine Reference Material

An online copy of volume one of the bookNanomedicine by Robert Freitas.

Chapter 7: "Engines of Healing" from the book Engines of Creation, The Coming Era of Nanotechnology by Eric Drexler

For a fun, fictionalized account of miniaturized medicine rent the 1966 movie Fantastic Voyage, or read the novelization of the movie by Isaac Asimov.

Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems

Nanomedicine Center for Nucleoprotein Machines

Related Pages

In about 20 years researchers plan to have the capability to build an object atom by atom or molecule by molecule. Molecular manufacturing, also called molecular nanotechnology will provide the ability to build the nanorobots needed for future applications of nanomedicine.

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Nanorobots in Medicine - Nanomedicine

Nanobiotechnology, bionanotechnology, and nanobiology are terms that refer to the intersection of nanotechnology and biology.[1] Given that the subject is one that has only emerged very recently, bionanotechnology and nanobiotechnology serve as blanket terms for various related technologies.

This discipline helps to indicate the merger of biological research with various fields of nanotechnology. Concepts that are enhanced through nanobiology include: nanodevices (such as biological machines), nanoparticles, and nanoscale phenomena that occurs within the discipline of nanotechnology. This technical approach to biology allows scientists to imagine and create systems that can be used for biological research. Biologically inspired nanotechnology uses biological systems as the inspirations for technologies not yet created.[2] However, as with nanotechnology and biotechnology, bionanotechnology does have many potential ethical issues associated with it.

The most important objectives that are frequently found in nanobiology involve applying nanotools to relevant medical/biological problems and refining these applications. Developing new tools, such as peptoid nanosheets, for medical and biological purposes is another primary objective in nanotechnology. New nanotools are often made by refining the applications of the nanotools that are already being used. The imaging of native biomolecules, biological membranes, and tissues is also a major topic for the nanobiology researchers. Other topics concerning nanobiology include the use of cantilever array sensors and the application of nanophotonics for manipulating molecular processes in living cells.[3]

Recently, the use of microorganisms to synthesize functional nanoparticles has been of great interest. Microorganisms can change the oxidation state of metals. These microbial processes have opened up new opportunities for us to explore novel applications, for example, the biosynthesis of metal nanomaterials. In contrast to chemical and physical methods, microbial processes for synthesizing nanomaterials can be achieved in aqueous phase under gentle and environmentally benign conditions. This approach has become an attractive focus in current green bionanotechnology research towards sustainable development.[4]

The terms are often used interchangeably. When a distinction is intended, though, it is based on whether the focus is on applying biological ideas or on studying biology with nanotechnology. Bionanotechnology generally refers to the study of how the goals of nanotechnology can be guided by studying how biological "machines" work and adapting these biological motifs into improving existing nanotechnologies or creating new ones.[5][6] Nanobiotechnology, on the other hand, refers to the ways that nanotechnology is used to create devices to study biological systems.[7]

In other words, nanobiotechnology is essentially miniaturized biotechnology, whereas bionanotechnology is a specific application of nanotechnology. For example, DNA nanotechnology or cellular engineering would be classified as bionanotechnology because they involve working with biomolecules on the nanoscale. Conversely, many new medical technologies involving nanoparticles as delivery systems or as sensors would be examples of nanobiotechnology since they involve using nanotechnology to advance the goals of biology.

The definitions enumerated above will be utilized whenever a distinction between nanobio and bionano is made in this article. However, given the overlapping usage of the terms in modern parlance, individual technologies may need to be evaluated to determine which term is more fitting. As such, they are best discussed in parallel.

Most of the scientific concepts in bionanotechnology are derived from other fields. Biochemical principles that are used to understand the material properties of biological systems are central in bionanotechnology because those same principles are to be used to create new technologies. Material properties and applications studied in bionanoscience include mechanical properties(e.g. deformation, adhesion, failure), electrical/electronic (e.g. electromechanical stimulation, capacitors, energy storage/batteries), optical (e.g. absorption, luminescence, photochemistry), thermal (e.g. thermomutability, thermal management), biological (e.g. how cells interact with nanomaterials, molecular flaws/defects, biosensing, biological mechanisms s.a. mechanosensing), nanoscience of disease (e.g. genetic disease, cancer, organ/tissue failure), as well as computing (e.g. DNA computing). The impact of bionanoscience, achieved through structural and mechanistic analyses of biological processes at nanoscale, is their translation into synthetic and technological applications through nanotechnology.

Nano-biotechnology takes most of its fundamentals from nanotechnology. Most of the devices designed for nano-biotechnological use are directly based on other existing nanotechnologies. Nano-biotechnology is often used to describe the overlapping multidisciplinary activities associated with biosensors, particularly where photonics, chemistry, biology, biophysics, nano-medicine, and engineering converge. Measurement in biology using wave guide techniques, such as dual polarization interferometry, are another example.

Applications of bionanotechnology are extremely widespread. Insofar as the distinction holds, nanobiotechnology is much more commonplace in that it simply provides more tools for the study of biology. Bionanotechnology, on the other hand, promises to recreate biological mechanisms and pathways in a form that is useful in other ways.

Nanomedicine is a field of medical science whose applications are increasing more and more thanks to nanorobots and biological machines, which constitute a very useful tool to develop this area of knowledge. In the past years, researchers have done many improvements in the different devices and systems required to develop nanorobots. This supposes a new way of treating and dealing with diseases such as cancer; thanks to nanorobots, side effects of chemotherapy have been controlled, reduced and even eliminated, so some years from now, cancer patients will be offered an alternative to treat this disease instead of chemotherapy, which causes secondary effects such as hair lose, fatigue or nausea killing not only cancerous cells but also the healthy ones. At a clinical level, cancer treatment with nanomedicine will consist on the supply of nanorobots to the patient through an injection that will seek for cancerous cells leaving untouched the healthy ones. Patients that will be treated through nanomedicine will not notice the presence of this nanomachines inside them; the only thing that is going to be noticeable is the progressive improvement of their health.[8]

Nanobiotechnology (sometimes referred to as nanobiology) is best described as helping modern medicine progress from treating symptoms to generating cures and regenerating biological tissues. Three American patients have received whole cultured bladders with the help of doctors who use nanobiology techniques in their practice. Also, it has been demonstrated in animal studies that a uterus can be grown outside the body and then placed in the body in order to produce a baby. Stem cell treatments have been used to fix diseases that are found in the human heart and are in clinical trials in the United States. There is also funding for research into allowing people to have new limbs without having to resort to prosthesis. Artificial proteins might also become available to manufacture without the need for harsh chemicals and expensive machines. It has even been surmised that by the year 2055, computers may be made out of biochemicals and organic salts.[9]

Another example of current nanobiotechnological research involves nanospheres coated with fluorescent polymers. Researchers are seeking to design polymers whose fluorescence is quenched when they encounter specific molecules. Different polymers would detect different metabolites. The polymer-coated spheres could become part of new biological assays, and the technology might someday lead to particles which could be introduced into the human body to track down metabolites associated with tumors and other health problems. Another example, from a different perspective, would be evaluation and therapy at the nanoscopic level, i.e. the treatment of Nanobacteria (25-200nm sized) as is done by NanoBiotech Pharma.

While nanobiology is in its infancy, there are a lot of promising methods that will rely on nanobiology in the future. Biological systems are inherently nano in scale; nanoscience must merge with biology in order to deliver biomacromolecules and molecular machines that are similar to nature. Controlling and mimicking the devices and processes that are constructed from molecules is a tremendous challenge to face the converging disciplines of nanotechnology.[10] All living things, including humans, can be considered to be nanofoundries. Natural evolution has optimized the "natural" form of nanobiology over millions of years. In the 21st century, humans have developed the technology to artificially tap into nanobiology. This process is best described as "organic merging with synthetic." Colonies of live neurons can live together on a biochip device; according to research from Dr. Gunther Gross at the University of North Texas. Self-assembling nanotubes have the ability to be used as a structural system. They would be composed together with rhodopsins; which would facilitate the optical computing process and help with the storage of biological materials. DNA (as the software for all living things) can be used as a structural proteomic system - a logical component for molecular computing. Ned Seeman - a researcher at New York University - along with other researchers are currently researching concepts that are similar to each other.[11]

DNA nanotechnology is one important example of bionanotechnology.[12] The utilization of the inherent properties of nucleic acids like DNA to create useful materials is a promising area of modern research. Another important area of research involves taking advantage of membrane properties to generate synthetic membranes. Proteins that self-assemble to generate functional materials could be used as a novel approach for the large-scale production of programmable nanomaterials. One example is the development of amyloids found in bacterial biofilms as engineered nanomaterials that can be programmed genetically to have different properties.[13]Protein folding studies provide a third important avenue of research, but one that has been largely inhibited by our inability to predict protein folding with a sufficiently high degree of accuracy. Given the myriad uses that biological systems have for proteins, though, research into understanding protein folding is of high importance and could prove fruitful for bionanotechnology in the future.

Lipid nanotechnology is another major area of research in bionanotechnology, where physico-chemical properties of lipids such as their antifouling and self-assembly is exploited to build nanodevices with applications in medicine and engineering.[14]

This field relies on a variety of research methods, including experimental tools (e.g. imaging, characterization via AFM/optical tweezers etc.), x-ray diffraction based tools, synthesis via self-assembly, characterization of self-assembly (using e.g. dual polarization interferometry, recombinant DNA methods, etc.), theory (e.g. statistical mechanics, nanomechanics, etc.), as well as computational approaches (bottom-up multi-scale simulation, supercomputing).

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Nanobiotechnology - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The need for the discovery and development of innovative technologies to improve the delivery of therapeutic and diagnostic agents in the body is widely recognized. The next generation therapies must be able to deliver drugs, therapeutic proteins and recombinant DNA to focal areas of disease or to tumors to maximize clinical benefit while limiting untoward side effects. The use of nanoscale technologies to design novel drug delivery systems and devices is a rapidly developing area of biomedical research that promises breakthrough advances in therapeutics and diagnostics.

Center for Drug Delivery and Nanomedicine (CDDN) serves to unify existing diverse technical and scientific expertise in biomedical and material science research at the University of Nebraska thereby creating a world class interdisciplinary drug delivery and nanomedicine program. This is realized by integrating established expertise in drug delivery, gene therapy, neuroscience, pathology, immunology, pharmacology, vaccine therapy, cancer biology, polymer science and nanotechnology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC), the University of Nebraska at Lincoln (UNL) and Creighton University.

CDDNs vision is to improve health by enhancing the efficacy and safety of new and existing therapeutic agents, diagnostic agents and genes through the discovery and application of innovative methods of drug delivery and nanotechnology. CDDNs mission is to discover and apply knowledge to design, develop and evaluate novel approaches to improve the delivery of therapeutic agents, diagnostic agents and genes.

The COBRE Nebraska Center for Nanomedicine is supported by the National Institute of General Medical Science(NIGMS) grant 2P20 GM103480-07.

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Center for Drug Delivery and Nanomedicine (CDDN)

Antibiotic resistance is now a bigger crisis than the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s, a landmark report recently warned. The spread of deadly superbugs that evade even the most powerful antibiotics is happening across the world, United Nations officials have confirmed. The effects will be devastating meaning a simple scratch or urinary tract infection could kill.

Tuberculosis (TB) is a scourge that is threatening to get ugly because TB is usually cured by taking antibiotics for six to nine months. However, if that treatment is interrupted or the dose is cut down, the stubborn bacteria battle back and mutate into a tougher strain that can no longer be killed by drugs. Such strains are scaring the heck out of the medical community for good reason. Tuberculosis is highly contagious, holding the potential to wipe out wide swaths of humanity in the case of an epidemic of these drug resistant strains.

Australias first victim of a killer strain of drug-resistant tuberculosis died amid warnings of a looming health epidemic on Queenslands doorstep. Medical experts are seriously concerned about the handling of the TB epidemic in Papua New Guinea after Catherina Abraham died of an incurable form of the illness, known as XDR-TB (extensively drug resistant TB) in Cairns Base Hospital. Of course we always get big scares from the mainstream medical press, who are big cheerleaders of big pharmaceutical companies as our governmental medical officials.

Now medical experts are warning that drug resistant tuberculosis is such a problem in the Asia Pacific region that it could overwhelm health systems.

A drug-resistant TB case did touch off a scare in U.S. We dont know too much about a Nepalese man whos in medical isolation in Texas while being treated for extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis, or XDR-TB, the most difficult-to-treat kind.

XDR-TB is resistant not only to isoniazid and rifampin but also a class of drugs called fluoroquinolones and one or more potent injectable antibiotics. This is one of the nastiest of all antibiotics, which easily destroys peoples lives by itself.

TB germs become drug-resistant when patients fail to complete a course of treatment. When a partly-resistant strain is treated with the wrong drugs, it can become extensively resistant. There are about 60,000 people with XDR-TB strains like the Nepalese man whos in isolation. That means there are other people with XDR-TB traveling the world at any given time.

China and India Will Spread TB around the World

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Nano Medicine - Treatments for Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria

Creating a hydrogel from the polymers

Through the precise tailoring of the ninja polymers, researchers were able to create macromolecules - molecular structures containing a large number of atoms - which combine water solubility, a positive charge, and biodegradability. When mixed with water and heated to normal body temperature, the polymers self-assemble, swelling into a synthetic hydrogel that is easy to manipulate.

When applied to contaminated surfaces, the hydrogel's positive charge attracts negatively charged microbial membranes, like stars and planets being pulled into a black hole. However, unlike other antimicrobials that target the internal machinery of bacteria to try to prevent it from replicating, this hydrogel destroys the bacteria by rupturing the bacteria's membrane, rendering it completely unable to regenerate or spread.

The hydrogel is comprised of more than 90 percent water, making it easy to handle and apply to surfaces. It also makes it potentially viable for eventual inclusion in applications like creams or injectable therapeutics for wound healing, implant and catheter coatings, skin infections or even orifice barriers. It is the first-ever to be biodegradable, biocompatible and non-toxic, potentially making it an ideal tool to combat serious health hazards facing hospital workers, visitors and patients.

The IBM scientists in the nanomedicine polymer program along with the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology have taken this research a step further and have made a nanomedicine breakthrough in which they converted common plastic materials like polyethylene terephthalate (PET) into non-toxic and biocompatible materials designed to specifically target and attack fungal infections.BCC Research reported that the treatment cost for fungal infections was $3 billion worldwide in 2010 andis expected to increase to $6 billion in 2014. In this breakthrough, the researchers identified a novel self-assembly process for broken down PET, the primary material in plastic water bottles, in which 'super' molecules are formed through a hydrogen bond and serve as drug carriers targeting fungal infections in the body. Demonstrating characteristics like electrostatic charge similar to polymers, the molecules are able to break through bacterial membranes and eradicate fungus, then biodegrade in the body naturally. This is important to treat eye infections associated with contact lenses, and bloodstream infections like Candida.

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IBMs nanomedicine initiative - IBM Research: Overview

May 31st, 2015 Filed under Urology Research Tagged beaumont, bladder, chinese, education, health, inter-, interstim, ministrelli, spinal, united, urology Comments Off on Urology Research William Beaumont Hospital

Urology research at Beaumont Hospitals is on the cutting edge of clinical practice, aimed at bringing innovative research protocols to patient care, advancing the treatment of disease, improving patient outcomes and enhancing their quality of life. Known as a leader in the field, the department is involved in several innovative studies including interstitial cystitis, urinary incontinence and the prostate gland.

Research projects concentrate on developing novel treatments for urinary incontinence, overactive bladder, pelvic pain, prostate cancer, female reconstructive surgery and neurogenic bladder. These translational and clinical studies along with sponsored pharmaceutical and equipment/device trials offer the opportunity to treat disease states that traditional therapies fail to address. Funded through grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), philanthropy including the Ministrelli Program for Urology Research and Education (MPURE), and industry contracts, Beaumont physicians serve as the principal investigators in these national and international trials.

Studies on neuro-urology and incontinence identify and utilize novel therapies such as neuromodulation and nerve re-routing to treat men, women and children who have voiding problems demonstrated to be refractory to standard therapies.

Beaumont Hospitals launched a research study to rewire nerves in the spinal cord in the hope of giving bladder control to people with spinal cord injury or spina bifida who otherwise depend on self-catheterization to urinate. The first procedure garnered national attention and appeared in more than 160 news outlets including U.S.News and World Report, The Washington Post and Forbes. Beaumont is the only institution in the United States to perform this procedure and also provide funding for all the associated costs.

The research at Beaumont uses nerve rerouting to redirect nerves in the spinal cord to gain better control of urination. After the procedure, patients signal the bladder to urinate by scratching or pinching their leg or buttocks. The Chinese doctor who developed the surgery, Chuan-Guo Xiao, M.D., reports an almost 90-percent success rate. The average time it took to see results was 12 to 24 months after surgery, with patients in China reporting better urinary control and improvements in their bowel function.

Beaumont Hospital urologists are first in the United States to research stress urinary incontinence treatment using a persons own stem cells. The stem cells are used to strengthen weak muscles that control urination. If successful, (autologous) muscle-derived stem cell therapy could offer new hope to people and offer them a life free of urinary leakage, says Dr. Peters, who is leading the research at Beaumont. Stress urinary incontinence the cause of wetness with coughing or physical activity affects about 13 million Americans, most of them women, but also men who have had a prostatectomy (surgery for prostate cancer). Current treatments, including medicine, exercises and surgery, are not always effective and may have undesirable side effects. The stem cells from 48 female research participants age 18 or older will be collected at Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak, and duplicated. The cells will then be injected into the muscles that control urination to strengthen them and prevent leakage.

Participation will last 12-14 months, and will include physical exams, procedures to assess the bladder, completing voiding diaries and questionnaires and a variety of diagnostic tests. A small sample of the participants thigh muscle will be collected, which is the source of the stem cells. Pregnant or nursing women may not participate.

The InterStim a pacemaker-like device used for urinary frequency, urgency and incontinence, is showing promise for treatment of interstitial cystitis symptoms. With the InterStim Therapy, manufactured by Medtronic, Inc., a small electrode is placed adjacent to the sacral nerve. The electrode is externalized and patients monitor their urinary urgency, frequency and pain for two weeks. If the symptoms are at least 50 percent improved, the stopwatch-size power generator is implanted in the upper part of the buttock. The generator is then connected to the previously-placed lead. When the generator produces a small electrical pulse, it stimulates the sacral nerve, helping to control the bladder, sphincter and pelvic floor.

In addition to stimulating the sacral nerve, Urology chairman Kenneth Peters, M.D., is conducting a research study looking at pudendal nerve stimulation using the InterStim device. Thirty subjects were implanted with both sacral and pudendal nerve electrodes. Patients tested each electrode in a blinded fashion. Seventy nine percent of subjects chose the pudendal lead as superior for treating their voiding dysfunction.

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Nano Medicine