Little is the new big, if the nanotech
craze is anything to go by. But what exactly is nanotechnology,
and what does it mean for the future of medicine? We
spoke with Dr Nels Petersen, director general of the
National Institute for Nanotechnology in Edmonton, to
get the lowdown.
NRM: In a nutshell,
what is nanotechnology?
Dr Nels Petersen: Nanotechnology is
a field where we can create, manipulate and study molecules
and assemblies of molecules at the scale of under 200
nanometres. There is a caveat: at that scale, we create
new properties. For example, the melting temperature
of a metal is the same whether you have 1kg or 1g. But
when you come down to having this minute 100 nanometre
particle, all of a sudden the melting point drops.
NRM: How did scientists
figure out they could work at this miniature scale?
Dr Petersen: The first point was really the recognition
of the fact that at this scale, things are different.
That emerged through quantum mechanics — Albert
Einstein and others — about 100 years ago. Then,
around 1980, we actually got the tools, like scanning
tunnelling microscopes, atomic force microscopes and
such, that allowed us to study individual atoms and
put them together. At the same time, we were learning
a lot more about the biological forces at work in nature.
We now know enough about these physical and chemical
forces to design an entity that will self-assemble.
NRM: How will
nanotechnology change the way medicine is practised?
Dr Petersen: I think there will be a nanotechnological
solution to most of the problems we're facing in diagnostics
or therapeutics, because we're dealing with things at
this molecular scale and learning a lot from biology.
We think about it in two big ways: one is creating new
biomedical tools, and the other is gaining a better
understanding of biology to apply that back into nanotechnology
solutions. It's a two-way street. Nanotechnology can
provide new diagnostic tools, new sensing tools and
potentially new therapeutic approaches.
NRM: What sort
of diagnostic tools come out of this research?
Dr Petersen: One example that's already on the
market is nanoparticles of different sizes, each of
a different color. These nanoparticles can be attached
to antibodies for diagnostic purposes: just by the color,
you know which antibody went where.
Another example that's at the advanced
state of research is a tiny magnetic particle, to which
you attach an antibody that will attract it to cancer
cells. The patient ingests the particle and then you
subject them to a steady, low magnetic field, which
causes the magnetic particle to heat up and destroy
the cancer cell. Alternatively, you may want to take
a drug and encapsulate it in a nanoparticle that will
protect it as it goes through the bloodstream. But when
it finally gets to its target, there's a way of releasing
the drug at that site and that site only.
Nanotech also affords us the opportunity
to create small devices that can detect many things
at the same time, like a small sensor embedded in the
skin that could tell you everything from what the pH
is, to what drugs are there and what biochemicals are
there. I think there are many, many different ways in
which nanotechnology will impact the medical side of
life.
NRM: Is there
a downside to the nanotech boom?
Dr Petersen: With any kind of new conceptual
framework, there's always a concern that we'll get into
areas that we don't know enough about. We have to be
aware of that. The beautiful aspect of nanotechnology
is that we can create new things with new properties.
But by the very fact that they have these new properties,
we have to be conscious about what they can do in areas
where we hadn't necessarily intended them to be used.
We have people working on trying
to understand what some of these issues are and how
we can contribute to making both the public and other
scientists aware of it, and maybe even provide solutions.
NRM: What role
does your organization, the National Institute for Nanotechnology
(NINT), play?
Dr Petersen: The NINT is a partnership between
the federal government, the province of Alberta, the
National Research Council and the University of Alberta.
We have three fundamental purposes: to conduct world
class research; to facilitate economic development in
Alberta, specifically in Edmonton; and finally, to try
and create a new relationship between a national laboratory
environment and a university environment. We're hoping
to blend some of those cultures and get the best of
both worlds. In that sense, the Institute is quite unique.
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