Nanotechnology and Biomedicine(2)
Source: Neelina H. Malsch_Biomedical Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology is the ability to measure, design, and manipulate at the atomic, molecular and supramolecular levels on a scale of about 1 to 100 nm in an effort to understand, create, and use material structures, devices, and systems with funda- mentally new properties and functions attributable to their small structures. All biological and man-made systems have their first levels of organization at the nanoscale (nanocrystals, nanotubes, and nanobiomotors), where their fundamental properties and functions are defined. The goal in nanotechnology may be described as the ability to assemble molecules into useful objects hierarchically integrated along several length scales and then, after use, disassemble objects into molecules. Nature already accomplishes this in living systems and in the environment.Rearranging matter on the nanoscale using “weak” molecular interactions such as van der Waals forces, H bonds, electrostatic dipoles, fluidics, and various surface forces requires low energy consumption and allows for reversible and other subse- quent changes. Such changes of usually “soft” nanostructures in a limited temper- ature range are essential for bioprocesses to take place. Research on “dry” nano- structures is now seeking systematic approaches to engineering human-made objects at nanoscale and integrating nanoscale structures into large-scale structures as nature does. While the specific approaches may be different from the slow evolutions of living systems in aqueous media, many concepts such as self-assembling, templating, interaction on surfaces of various shapes, self-repairing, and integration on multiple length scales can be used as sources of inspiration.Nanobiomedicine is a field that applies nanoscale principles and techniques to understanding and transforming inert materials and biosystems (nonliving, living or thinking) for medical purposes such as drug synthesis, brain understanding, body part replacement, visualization, and tools for medical interventions. Integration of nanotechnology with biomedicine and biology, and with information technology and cognitive science is expected to accelerate in the next decade. Convergence of nanoscale science with modern biology and medicine is a trend that should be reflected in science policy decisions.Nanobiosystem science and engineering is one of the most challenging and fastest growing components of nanotechnology. It is essential for better understand- ing of living systems and for developing new tools for medicine and solutions for health care (such as synthesis of new drugs and their targeted delivery, regenerative medicine, and neuromorphic engineering). One important challenge is understanding the processes inside cells and neural systems. Nanobiosystems are sources of inspi- ration and provide models for man-made nanosystems. Research may lead to better biocompatible materials and nanobiomaterials for industrial applications. The confluence of biology and nanoscience will contribute to unifying concepts of sci- ence, engineering, technology, medicine, and agriculture.
วันพุธที่ 10 มิถุนายน พ.ศ. 2552
Nanotechnology and Biomedicine(1)
Converging Technologies:
Nanotechnology and Biomedicine(1)
Source: Neelina H. Malsch_Biomedical Nanotechnology
By Mihail C. Roco
National Science FoundationChair, U.S. Nanoscale Science, Engineering and Technology (NSET)Washington, D.C.
Recent research on biosystems at the nanoscale has created one of the most dynamic interdisciplinary research and application domains for human discovery and innovation. This domain includes better understanding and treat- ment of living and thinking systems, revolutionary biotechnology processes, syn- thesis of new drugs and their targeted delivery, regenerative medicine, neuromorphic engineering, and biocompatible materials for sustainable environment. Nanobiosys- tems and biomedical research are priorities in the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, Switzerland, China, and other countries and regional organizations.With proper attention to ethical issues and societal needs, these converging technologies could yield tremendous improvements in human capabilities, societal outcomes, and the quality of life. The worldwide emergence of nanoscale scienceand engineering was marked by the announcement of the U.S. National Nanotech- nology Initiative (NNI) in January 2000. Its relevance to biomedicine is expected to increase rapidly in the future. The contributions made in this volume are outlined in the context of research directions for the field.
Nanotechnology and Biomedicine(1)
Source: Neelina H. Malsch_Biomedical Nanotechnology
By Mihail C. Roco
National Science FoundationChair, U.S. Nanoscale Science, Engineering and Technology (NSET)Washington, D.C.
Recent research on biosystems at the nanoscale has created one of the most dynamic interdisciplinary research and application domains for human discovery and innovation. This domain includes better understanding and treat- ment of living and thinking systems, revolutionary biotechnology processes, syn- thesis of new drugs and their targeted delivery, regenerative medicine, neuromorphic engineering, and biocompatible materials for sustainable environment. Nanobiosys- tems and biomedical research are priorities in the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, Switzerland, China, and other countries and regional organizations.With proper attention to ethical issues and societal needs, these converging technologies could yield tremendous improvements in human capabilities, societal outcomes, and the quality of life. The worldwide emergence of nanoscale scienceand engineering was marked by the announcement of the U.S. National Nanotech- nology Initiative (NNI) in January 2000. Its relevance to biomedicine is expected to increase rapidly in the future. The contributions made in this volume are outlined in the context of research directions for the field.
วันอังคารที่ 9 มิถุนายน พ.ศ. 2552
Lab on a chip
Lab on a chip mimics brain chemistry
February 12th, 2008 Johns Hopkins researchers from the Whiting School of Engineering and the School of Medicine have devised a micro-scale tool – a lab on achip – designed to mimic the chemical complexities of the brain. The system should help scientists better understand how nerve cells in the brain work together to form the nervous system.
AmpliChip CYP450 Test – www.AmpliChip.us
Roche Diagnostics US Official Site FDA cleared CYP450 Test
A report on the work appears as the cover story in the February 2008 issue of the British journal Lab on a Chip. ”The chip we’ve developed will make xperiments on nerve cells more simple to conduct and to control,” says Andre Levchenko, Ph.D., associate professor of biomedical engineering at the Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering and faculty affiliate of the Institute for NanoBioTechnology. Nerve cells decide which direction to grow by sensing both the chemical cues flowing through their environment as well as those attached to the surfaces that surround them. The chip, which is made of a plastic-like substance and covered with a glass lid, features a system of channels and wells that allow researchers to control the flow of specific chemical cocktails around single nerve cells.
“It is difficult to establish ideal experimental conditions to study how neurons react to growth signals because so much is happening at once that sorting out nerve cell connections is hard, but the chip, designed by experts in both brain chemistry and engineering, offers a sophisticated way to sort things out,” says Guo-li Ming,
M.D.,Ph.D., associate professor of neurology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Institute for Cell Engineering.
In experiments with their chip, the researchers put single nerve cells, or rons,onto the chip then introduced specific growth signals (in the form of hemicals).They found that the growing neurons turned and grew toward higher concentrations of certain chemical cues attached to the chip’s surfaces, as well as to signaling molecules free-flowing in solution.
When researchers subjected the neurons to conflicting signals (both surface bound and cues in solution), they found that the cells turned randomly, suggesting that cells do not choose one signal over the other. This,according to Levchenko,supports the prevailing theory that one cue can elicit different responses depending on
a cell’s surroundings. “The ability to combine several different stimuli in the chip resembles a more realistic environment that nerve cells will encounter in the living animal,” Ming says.This in turn will make future studies on the role of neuronal cells in development and regeneration more accurate and complete.
Source: Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions
Release of neurological drugs
Release of neurological drugs
Drug Delivery Systems
Markets and Applications for Nanotechnology Derived Drug Delivery Systems
Background
The most promising aspect of pharmaceuticals and medicine as it relates to nanotechnology is currently drug delivery. In the words of LaVan and Langer: ‘It is likely that the pharmaceutical industry will transition from a paradigm of drug discovery by screening compounds to the purposeful engineering of targeted molecules.’
Reasons Why the Drug Delivery Market is Rapidly Expanding
At present, there are 30 main drug delivery products on the market. The total annual income for all of these is approximately US$33 billion with an annual growth of 15% (based on global product revenue). Two major drivers are primarily responsible for this increase in the market. First, present advances in diagnostic technology appear to be outpacing advances in new therapeutic agents. Highly detailed information from a patient is becoming available, thus promoting much more specific use of pharmaceuticals. Second, the acceptance of new drug formulations is expensive and slow, taking up to 15 years to obtain accreditation of new drug formulas with no guarantee of success.
How Drug Companies are Reacting to this Expansion
In response, some companies are trying to hurry the long clinical phase required in Western medicine. However, powerful incentives remain to investigate new techniques that can more effectively deliver or target existing drugs (Saxl, 2000). In addition, many of these new tools will have foundation in current techniques: a targeted molecule may simply add spatial or temporal resolution to an existing assay. Thus, although many potential applications are envisaged, the actual near future products are not much more than better research tools or aids to diagnosis. These are summarised in the following three tables.
More details see >> AZoNanotechnology Article
Drug delivery
Drug delivery is a process, during which pharmaceutical compounds are delivered to humans or animals. Methods of delivery include several routs, such as oral, nasal, pneumonial, rectal and several others. In order to work effectively, the drug needs to work in a controlled manner, which would control the circulation of the drug in the body. Targeted delivery occurs when the drug remains active within a specified territory of the body. Targeted drug delivery is especially important in cases, when the drug needs to affect a malicious turmoil, such as in cancerous tissues.
Doctors all over the world are trying to find new methods for more effective drug development and drug delivery. One of the most successful methods developed in recent years is nanotechnology. This mechanism, which controls small-scale matter, makes it possible for drugs to permeate trough cell walls. The methods of nanotechnology play a very important role in pharma industry: health organizations manufacture more efficient drugs, released in a controlled manner in order to reach the target areas of the patients' body.
Drug development aims to find more effective drugs, which would cure or ameliorate symptoms of illness or medical condition. Drug development is required to establish the chemical properties of new compounds, their stability and chemical makeup. The process of drug development also involves the need to fit the regulatory requirements of drug licensing authorities. Pharmaceutical companies, which produce different medications, develop new methods of targeted drug delivery. Nanotechnology, developed in recent years may provide a breakthrough technique of drug delivery.
Submitted by Natalie Halimi - Content Editor in Internet Marketing Company - Inter-Dev http://www.inter-dev.co.il/en/ Drug delivery, drug development - http://www.docoop.com/
Doctors all over the world are trying to find new methods for more effective drug development and drug delivery. One of the most successful methods developed in recent years is nanotechnology. This mechanism, which controls small-scale matter, makes it possible for drugs to permeate trough cell walls. The methods of nanotechnology play a very important role in pharma industry: health organizations manufacture more efficient drugs, released in a controlled manner in order to reach the target areas of the patients' body.
Drug development aims to find more effective drugs, which would cure or ameliorate symptoms of illness or medical condition. Drug development is required to establish the chemical properties of new compounds, their stability and chemical makeup. The process of drug development also involves the need to fit the regulatory requirements of drug licensing authorities. Pharmaceutical companies, which produce different medications, develop new methods of targeted drug delivery. Nanotechnology, developed in recent years may provide a breakthrough technique of drug delivery.
Submitted by Natalie Halimi - Content Editor in Internet Marketing Company - Inter-Dev http://www.inter-dev.co.il/en/ Drug delivery, drug development - http://www.docoop.com/
New Drug Delivery Technique
New Drug Delivery Technique Avoids NeedlesBy Sarah Graham
Hypodermic needles are the stuff of nightmares for many people, but they represent a common method for administering a variety of drugs. Patients who fear a needle prick, however, may soon have an alternative, painless way to receive medication. A new technique described today in the journal BMC Medicine uses a stream of gas to help deliver drugs through the skin with what subjects describe as the sensation of a gentle stream of air.
James Weaver of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his colleagues developed the novel procedure, which is known as microscission. It uses minuscule inert crystals of aluminum oxide to remove the rough outer layer of skin and create tiny holes, known as microconduits and measuring less than a quarter of a millimeter in diameter, through which medication can move. A jet of flowing gas then takes the crystals and the loosened skin away. After creating four microconduits on the inner arm of volunteers, the team applied a pad soaked in the anesthetic lidocaine. Within two minutes, the drug had worked and the subjects reported no feeling in the region.
The size and depth of the microconduits is determined by holes punched in a polymer mask laid on top of the skin. The team reports that "the onset of anesthesia takes longer in microconduits deep enough to yield blood than in shallower, nonblood producing microconduits." But deep microconduits do have some advantages. Patients suffering from diabetes, for example, often have to jab a finger to test their blood sugar; microscission could represent a less painful alternative, the team suggests.
Source>http://www.scientificamerican.com/
Hypodermic needles are the stuff of nightmares for many people, but they represent a common method for administering a variety of drugs. Patients who fear a needle prick, however, may soon have an alternative, painless way to receive medication. A new technique described today in the journal BMC Medicine uses a stream of gas to help deliver drugs through the skin with what subjects describe as the sensation of a gentle stream of air.
James Weaver of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his colleagues developed the novel procedure, which is known as microscission. It uses minuscule inert crystals of aluminum oxide to remove the rough outer layer of skin and create tiny holes, known as microconduits and measuring less than a quarter of a millimeter in diameter, through which medication can move. A jet of flowing gas then takes the crystals and the loosened skin away. After creating four microconduits on the inner arm of volunteers, the team applied a pad soaked in the anesthetic lidocaine. Within two minutes, the drug had worked and the subjects reported no feeling in the region.
The size and depth of the microconduits is determined by holes punched in a polymer mask laid on top of the skin. The team reports that "the onset of anesthesia takes longer in microconduits deep enough to yield blood than in shallower, nonblood producing microconduits." But deep microconduits do have some advantages. Patients suffering from diabetes, for example, often have to jab a finger to test their blood sugar; microscission could represent a less painful alternative, the team suggests.
Source>http://www.scientificamerican.com/
Nanocontainers Deliver Drugs
Nanocontainers Deliver Drugs Directly to Cells
By Sarah Graham
April 28, 2003
One challenge to effective drug treatment is getting the medication to exactly the right place. To that end, researchers have been investigating myriad new methods to deliver pharmaceuticals. Findings published in the current issue of the journal Science indicate that tiny nanocontainers composed of polymers may one day distribute drugs to specific spots within individual cells.
Radoslav Savic and his colleagues at McGill University tested the properties of tiny units built out of two types of polymers. The two compounds self-assemble into a spherical shape known as a micelle. One compound, which is hydrophobic (water fearing), aligns facing inwards and the other, which is hydrophilic (water loving), faces outwards. Drugs can then be loaded inside the tiny molecular globs, which measure 20 to 45 nanometers in diameter. The researchers used fluorescent labeling to track the micelles' journeys (see image). They found that the tiny containers could pass through the wall of a rat cell, but did not enter the cell's nucleus. The micelles did, however, penetrate some cell parts, such as mitochondria and the Golgi apparatus, which are important targets for drug delivery.
The scientists also determined that the micelles are very efficient at delivering their hydrophobic drug cargo once inside a cell. This property could mean that doctors may one day be able to administer smaller doses of toxic medications. "These micelles may thus be worth exploring for their potential to selectively deliver drugs to specified subcellular targets," the authors note. In an accompanying commentary, Jeffrey A. Hubbell of the University of Zurich cautions that much work remains to be done, "yet, multifunctional polymer micelles have already come a long way to reaching these ends."
Source >http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=nanocontainers-deliver-dr
By Sarah Graham
April 28, 2003
One challenge to effective drug treatment is getting the medication to exactly the right place. To that end, researchers have been investigating myriad new methods to deliver pharmaceuticals. Findings published in the current issue of the journal Science indicate that tiny nanocontainers composed of polymers may one day distribute drugs to specific spots within individual cells.
Radoslav Savic and his colleagues at McGill University tested the properties of tiny units built out of two types of polymers. The two compounds self-assemble into a spherical shape known as a micelle. One compound, which is hydrophobic (water fearing), aligns facing inwards and the other, which is hydrophilic (water loving), faces outwards. Drugs can then be loaded inside the tiny molecular globs, which measure 20 to 45 nanometers in diameter. The researchers used fluorescent labeling to track the micelles' journeys (see image). They found that the tiny containers could pass through the wall of a rat cell, but did not enter the cell's nucleus. The micelles did, however, penetrate some cell parts, such as mitochondria and the Golgi apparatus, which are important targets for drug delivery.
The scientists also determined that the micelles are very efficient at delivering their hydrophobic drug cargo once inside a cell. This property could mean that doctors may one day be able to administer smaller doses of toxic medications. "These micelles may thus be worth exploring for their potential to selectively deliver drugs to specified subcellular targets," the authors note. In an accompanying commentary, Jeffrey A. Hubbell of the University of Zurich cautions that much work remains to be done, "yet, multifunctional polymer micelles have already come a long way to reaching these ends."
Source >http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=nanocontainers-deliver-dr
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