Nanotechnology consists of the processing of, separation,
consolidation, and deformation of materials by one atom or one molecule. More
broadly, nanotechnology includes the many techniques used to create structures
at a size scale below 100 nm. The biological and medical research communities
have exploited the unique properties of nanomaterials for various applications
Nanomedicine
Nanotechnology
has become a new advent of medicine (nano-medicine). The use of nanotechnology
in medicine offers some exciting possibilities. Some techniques are only
imagined, while others are at various stages of testing, or actually being used
today. Two main approaches are used in nanotechnology: one is a “bottom-up”
approach where materials and devices are built up atom by atom, the other a
“top-down” approach where they are synthesized or constructed by removing
existing material from larger entities. Nanotechnology in medicine involves
applications of nanoparticles
currently under development, as well as longer ranges research that involves
the use of manufactured nano-robots to make repairs at the cellular level
(referred to as nanomedicine). Nanotechnology-on-a-chip is one more dimension
of lab-on-a-chip technology. Biological tests measuring the presence or
activity of selected substances become quicker, more sensitive and more
flexible when certain nanoscale particles are put to work as tags or labels.
The overall drug consumption and side-effects can be lowered
significantly by depositing the active agent in the morbid region only and in
no higher dose than needed. This highly selective approach reduces costs and
human suffering. A targeted or personalized medicine reduces the drug
consumption and treatment expenses resulting in an overall societal benefit by
reducing the costs to the public health system.
Nanotechnology can help to reproduce or to repair damaged
tissue. This so-called “tissue engineering” makes use of artificially
stimulated cell proliferation by using suitable nanomaterial-based scaffolds
and growth factors.
Applications of
medical nanotechnology
Applications of medical nanotechnology span across a variety
of areas such as in Drugs, Medicines, Therapeutics: in Diagnostics of diseases,
abnormal conditions etc., in Surgery, in Medical
Robotics, in the general sake of increasing knowledge of the human body,
etc.