Nanotechnology and Medicine

NANOTECHNOLOGY AND MEDICINE

Eucario Bakale Angue Oyana

ME 584 Introduction to Nanotechnology

Instructor: Dr. Zhaoyang Wang

December 03, 2007

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Catholic University of America

Washington, DC

Table of Contents

1. Introduction……………………………………………………………………………1

2. Medicine Today…………………………………………………………….................2

2.1. Crude Methods……………………………………………………………………2

2.2. Limited Abilities………………………………………………………………….3

3. Nanotechnology in Medicine………………………………………………………….3

3.1. Current Applications……………………………………………………………...3

3.1.1. Nanocrystalline Silver……………………………………………………..4

3.2. Applications under Development………………………………………………...5

3.2.1. Quantum Dots……………………………………………………………..5

3.2.2. Nanoparticles……………………………………………………………...7

3.2.3. Nanoshells…………………………………………………………………8

3.2.4. Nanotubes…………………………………………………………………9

4. The Future of Nanomedicine and Technical Challenges……………………………..9

References……………………………………………………………………………10

1. Introduction

Nanotechnology can be defined as the science and engineering involved in the design, synthesis, characterization, and application of materials and devices whose smallest functional organization in at least one dimension is on the nanometer scale or one billionth of a meter. At these scales, consideration of individual molecules and interacting groups of molecules in relation to the bulk macroscopic properties of the material or device becomes important, since it is control over the fundamental molecular structure that allows control over the macroscopic chemical and physical properties. Applications to medicine and physiology imply materials and devices designed to interact with the body at subcellular (i.e., molecular) scales with a high degree of specificity. This can potentially translate into targeted cellular and tissue specific clinical applications designed to achieve maximal therapeutic affects with minimal side effects

Disease and ill health are caused largely by damage at the molecular and cellular level. Today's surgical tools are, at this scale, large and crude. From the viewpoint of a cell, even a fine scalpel is a blunt instrument more suited to tear and injure than heal and cure. Modern surgery works only because cells have a remarkable ability to regroup, bury their dead and heal over the injury.

Nanotechnology, "the manufacturing technology of the 21st century," should let us economically build a broad range of complex molecular. It will let us build fleets of computer controlled molecular tools much smaller than a human cell and built with the accuracy and precision