Nanomedicine is the medical application of nanotechnology and related research. It covers areas such as nanoparticle drug delivery and possible future applications of molecular nanotechnology (MNT).
The first thorough analysis of possible applications of MNT to medicine, can be read in Nanomedicine, a book series by Robert Freitas; it analyzes a wide range of possible nanotechnology-based medical devices, and explains the relevant science behind their design.
The somewhat speculative claims about the possibility of using nanorobots in medicine, advocates say, would totally change the world of medicine once it is realised. Nanomedicine would make use of these nanorobots, introduced into the body, to repair or detect damages and infections. A typical blood borne medical nanorobot would be between 0.5-3 micrometres in size, because that is the maximum size possible due to capillary passage requirement. Carbon would be the primary element used to build these nanorobots due to the inherent strength and other characteristics of some forms of carbon (diamond/fullerene composites). Cancer can be treated very effectively, according to nanomedicine advocates. Nanorobots could counter the problem of identifying and isolating cancer cells as they could be introduced into the blood stream. These nanorobots would search out cancer affected cells using certain molecular markers. Medical nanorobots would then destroy these cells, and only these cells. This could be very helpful, since current treatments like radiation therapy and chemotherapy often end up destroying more healthy cells than cancerous ones. Nanorobots could also be useful in treating vascular disease[1], physical trauma [2], and even biological aging [3].
External links
- Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews Volume 56, Issue 11, Pages 1527-1692 (22 September 2004) Intelligent Therapeutics: Biomimetic Systems and Nanotechnology in Drug Delivery
