NANOTECHNOLOGY NANOTECHNOLOGY APPLIED TO LIFE APPLIED TO LIFE SCIENCESSCIENCES

NANOMEDICNE & DRUG DELIVERYNANOMEDICNE & DRUG DELIVERY

What is NANOTECHNOLOGY ?

• Nanotechnology is the creation of functional materials, devices, and systems through control of matter on the nanometer length scale and the exploitation of novel properties and phenomena developed at that scale.

NANOMETER………..(nm) A nanometer is one billionth of a meter (10-9 m).

This is roughly ten times the size of an individual atom.

Why is this scale so important ?

Nanotechnology promises to allow us to place artificial components and assemblies inside cells, and to make new materials using the self-assembly methods of nature.

Is this really new...... ???

Though this idea seems to a very new one but it as old as 1959, when famous physicist Richard Feynman gave this idea in his lecture given at California Institute of Technology called "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom“,

.......... a field, in which little has been done, but in which an enormous amount can be done in principle. This field is not quite the same as the others in that it will not tell us much of fundamental physics (in the sense of, ``What are the strange particles?'')............. .......talk about is the problem of manipulating and controlling things on a small scale. ...................As soon as I mention this, people tell me about miniaturization, and how far it has progressed today. They tell me about electric motors that are the size of the nail on your small finger. And there is a device on the market, they tell me, by which you can write the Lord's Prayer on the head of a pin. But that's nothing; that's the most primitive, halting step in the direction I intend to discuss. It is a staggeringly small world that is below. .............”

History continues........ Norio Taniguchi of Tokyo science University first defined

nanotechnology in 1974. His definition still stands as the basic statement today: "'Nano-technology' mainly consists of the processing of separation, consolidation, and deformation of materials by one atom or one molecule."

K. Eric Drexler is the one who is most recognized by most with driving the nanotechnology revolution to where it is today. By increasing recognition of the research to the public, educating those who would in the future research and develop nanotechnology, and just simply light up the field, he was presented the first PhD in nanotechnology.

Nanomedicine and Drug Delivery Why

Nanomedicine ?? ......

Some drugs are highly toxic and can cause harsh side effects and reduced therapeutic effect if they decompose during their delivery. But in case nanomedicine the drug is delivered to the site it is required thereby reducing the side effects

Drug Delivery...... Drug Encapsulation...... One major class of drug delivery systems is materials that

encapsulate drugs to protect them during transit in the body. Drug encapsulation materials include liposomes and polymers

(i.e. Polylactide (PLA) and Lactide-co-Glycolide (PLGA)) which are used asmicroscale particles

Functional Drug Carriers...... Nanostructures can be controlled to link with a drug, a targeting

molecule, and an imaging agent, then attract specific cells and release their payload when required

Fullerenes, Dendrimers, and Nanoshells are the nanostructures used for this purpose

Drug Delivery......

Drug Discovery...... The nanorobots that are released in the blood stream are collected

back and they provide excellent source of information to track out disease and mal functioning of any organ.

Tissue replacement and repair...... Assessment and Treatment Devices...... Surgical Aids......

Nanorobots Nanorobots are nanodevices that will be used for the purpose of

maintaining and protecting the human body against pathogens. The main element used will be carbon in the form of diamond /

fullerene nanocomposites because of the strength and chemical inertness of these forms.

To avoid being attacked by the host’s immune system, the best choice for exterior coating is passive diamond coating.

Carbon is indeed outstandingly biocompatible with living cells.

Nanomotors.....

POTENT ENGINE. The ATPase motor is built on the membranes of cellular mitochondria. The force it generates in moving energy in cells places it among the most powerful of any known molecular motors.

Researchers at Berkeley at the University of California created the world's smallest electrical device earlier this year - one hundred million of which could fit on the end of a pin.

Nanomotors......

Dimensions achieved..... The shaft is a half a tenth of a thousandth of a millimeter thick (50nm) The axle element is about 20-40 nanometers in diameter Rotor are about 400 nanometers wide Stators are like one would have on an electrical motor, which are

about a micron apart Multi-walled nanotubes are used where the inner tube as a sort of

axle, and the outer tube as the outside bearing,

Fuels.......energy for nanorobots Catalytic reactions Catalyst can act as surface tension engines to move micro- and

nanoscale particles

Laser Light Lasers transfer the angular, or sideways, momentum of infrared

photons to carbon nanotubes. The tubes then rotate like whirring turbines

Future of Nanomedicine.......... Respirocytes: A

mechanical artificial RBC Collottocytes: Artificial

mechanical platelets Microbivores: Artificial

mechanical phagocytes Vasculoid: A Personal

Nanomedical Appliance to Replace Human Blood

Doubts....... Will "old nanorobots" left in the body cause problems when they

eventually fail? How would the nanorobots be retrieved from the body? Won't medical nanorobots be attacked by the immune system, as

soon as they are placed inside the human body? Will medical nanorobots possess a humanlike artificial intelligence? How would you communicate with the machines as they do their

work? If medical nanorobots are infused into the human body,

intravenously, how would one track their location? How would chemical agents (e.g. an anti-cancer drug) be

transported and delivered to a target cell? What form of detection system would medical nanorobots use to

distinguish between differing cell types?

In the end......

As the size decreases...computer will compute faster, materials will be more stronger, medicine will cure more diseases.

The technology that works at the nanometer scale of molecules and atom will be a large part of this future.

THANK YOU !!!