Showing papers on "Nanomedicine published in 2003"

Nanomedicine, Volume IIA: Biocompatibility

Abstract: “Compatibility” most broadly refers to the suitability of two distinct systems or classes of things to be mixed or taken together without unfavorable results. More specifically, the safety, effectiveness, and utility of medical nanorobotic devices will critically depend upon their biocompatibility with human organs, tissues, cells, and biochemical systems. Classical biocompatibility has often focused on the immunological and thrombogenic reactions of the body to foreign substances placed within it. In this Volume, we broaden the definition of nanomedical biocompatibility to include all of the mechanical, physiological, immunological, cytological, and biochemical responses of the human body to the introduction of medical nanodevices, whether “particulate” or “bulk” in form. That is, medical nanodevices may include large doses of independent micron-sized individual nanorobots, or alternatively may include macroscale nanoorgans (nanorobotic organs) assembled either as solid objects or built up from trillions of smaller artificial cells or docked nanorobots inside the body. We also discuss the effects on the nanorobot of being placed inside the human body.

Medicine on a small scale

Abstract: Over the past few years, nanotechnology has emerged as a new and exciting research field that deals with the design, synthesis and fabrication of structures at the molecular scale. Smallness is not in itself the prime goal; it is rather the expectation that, by manipulating matter at the molecular level, new intrinsic material properties can be created. Because living matter itself is basically composed of biological ‘nanomachines’ and nanostructures, researchers recognized quite early on that biology and medicine could be prime fields for the application of nanotechnology. In general, nanomedicine can be defined as the monitoring, repairing, construction and control of human biological systems at the cellular level by using materials and structures engineered at the molecular level. It encompasses much more than just being an extension of ‘molecular medicine’, and future products and developments may have extraordinary and far‐reaching implications for the definition, diagnosis and treatment of disease, and for how medicine is practised (Freitas, 2002). The main interests currently lie in improving diagnostic methods and in developing better drug delivery systems to improve disease therapy. More generally, the scientific community is increasingly focusing its attention on the novel chemical and physical properties of nano‐sized materials to develop new applications in regard to human health. > Nanomedicine can be defined as the monitoring, repairing, construction and control of human biological systems at the cellular level by using materials and structures engineered at the molecular level Nanotechnology today deals mainly with two rather different but complementary types of material: nano‐sized structures (or nanoparticles) and nanoporous materials. There are already some exciting developments in the field of diagnostics based on the use of nanoparticles, in particular fluorescent semiconductor quantum dots (QDs). QDs are monodisperse inorganic nanocrystalline particles made from semiconducting material and are typically 2–10 nm in size—about the size of a …

Bioreduction Synthesis of Eu−Au Nanoparticles

Abstract: Research in nanotechnology involves the development of new materials at the nanometric scale, especially in the case of nanoparticles, where the use of metals and semiconductors has been the object of intense research. In this work, we have reported the synthesis of novel nanomaterials based on bimetallic particles of rare earths, which opens a new field of application for lanthanides in nanophotonics, nanoelectronics, and nanomedicine. We report the synthesis of Eu−Au nanoparticles by bioreduction methods and the corresponding structural characterization by using high-resolution electron microscopy. Eu−Au nanoparticles were synthesized at different pH values, and all the nanoparticles were studied for their characteristics. Among the nanoparticles obtained at different pH values, pH = 8 was found to be optimal for obtaining the smallest clusters on the basis of the size distribution and other characteristics. The structures of these bimetallic clusters are comparable to the main metal clusters, which wer...

Nanomedicine in the future

Abstract: The article outlines the conception of nanotechnology and nanomedicine and introduces the idea to develop nanomedicine, the base to develop nanomedicine and the progress of relevant activities in China