Nanomedicine has gone from a fantasy to a reality in less than 15 years, according to this article. It presents a history of the origins of nanomedicine, back to 1959 when Richard Feynman gave his lecture, \u201cThere\u2019s Plenty of Room at the Bottom\u201d, up to present day nanomedical applications. Today, there are nanomedicine therapies that have made it into human trials, particularly in the area of cancer research. Mauro Ferrari, president of the Methodist Hospital Research Institute in Houston, Texas, United States, says, \u201cWe really believe that we can get these technologies into the clinic. We work on other diseases, such as diabetes, but about 70 percent of the people in my lab work on ovarian cancer and pancreatic cancer\u2014all the tough stuff. \u201d Diagnostic applications for nanoparticles are also being explored as new ways to track tumor progression, as well as to label cancers before operating to ensure that all of the tumor is excised. The next big hurdle, however, will be resolving potential toxicity issues. Clinicians are worried about the long-term effects that non-degradable metals in nanoparticles could have on the human body, and several studies have suggested that nanoparticles are cytotoxic in culture. Warren Chan, a professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Toronto, Canada, said, \u201cPeople are just starting to understand how these particles interact with cells and how they might affect human health. The last five or six years, we\u2019ve had to take a step back from the exploratory side and do some of these basic studies. The same thing goes for nanomaterials manufacturing because now we have to learn how to scale up these technologies.\u201d<\/p>\n
http:\/\/the-scientist.com\/2011\/10\/01\/a-small-revolution\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nanomedicine has gone from a fantasy to a reality in less than 15 years, according to this article.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology-update"],"yoast_head":"\n