|
|
| The View From Here Approximately 10,000 articles relevant to this topic have been published during the past two years in addition to numerous books. The selected articles for this month’s E-choice deal with the role of nanobiotechnology in life sciences research, drug discovery, drug delivery, diagnostics, and nanomedicine. Enjoy!
Kewal Jain is a physician trained in neurology/neurosurgery and biomedical
research. He worked for 25 years in various academic and private practice
positions worldwide mostly in Canada and the United States. For most of
the past decade, he has been involved in integrating new biotechnologies
for the development of personalized medicine. One of the areas of his
interest is nanobiotechnology. He is the author of a book "Nanobiotechnology
in Molecular Diagnostics" released in 2006, and is writing the "Handbook
of Nanomedicine" to be published by the Horizon Scientific Press
in the UK in the fall of 2007.
|
Nanotechnology
is the creation and utilization of materials, devices, and systems through
the control of matter on the nanoscale. Given the inherent nanoscale of
the functional components of a living cell, it was inevitable that nanotechnology
was applied in biotechnology. Nanobiotechnology -- an integration of physical
sciences, molecular engineering, biology, chemistry and biotechnology
-- holds considerable promise of advances in pharmaceuticals and healthcare.
The past two years have seen a tremendous increase in research and application
of nanobiotechnology in molecular diagnostics, drug discovery, and drug
delivery. In all of these areas, nanobiotechnology has refined procedures
and extended the capabilities beyond previous limitations. Like any other
new technology, there is concern about the unknown and possible harmful
effects of nanoparticles on the human body and these are being addressed.
Ultimately, the most important application of nanobiotechnology will be
for the development of nanomedicine. The impact of nanomedicine will be
far reaching and not limited to the visionary idea of introducing tiny
nanorobots into the human body to perform repairs at molecular level.
Nanomedicine will benefit from the translation of advances in nanobiotechnology
into improvements in medical diagnosis on a molecular level, understanding
the disease pathomechanism, use of nanomaterials for repair of various
body structures, targeted therapies for diseases such as cancer and monitoring
of treatment. By facilitating integration of diagnostics and therapeutics,
nanobiotechnology will contribute to the development of personalized medicine.