BIOMEDICAL APPLICATIONS OF NANOSCALE DEVICES: COMMERCIAL OPPORTUNITIES

摘要

The ability of nanotech engineers to manufacture items on the same scale as proteins and cellular organelles has opened up a whole new range or possibilities with respect to medical intervention in disease processes. Robert Freitas, from Zyvex, defines nanomedicine as "the comprehensive monitoring, control, construction, repair defense and improvement of human biological systems, working from the molecular level, using engineered nanodevices and nanostructures." This seems an adequate definition, for our purposes. In the table below, we compare the diameters of some of the favorite manufactured items used by nanotechnologists with the diameters of small objects found in nature. The smallest, not counting sub-atomic particles, is the hydrogen atom, which is about 0.1 nm in diameter. Six carbon atoms lined end-to-end measure about 1 nm in length. Perhaps surprisingly, the synthetic molecule, buckminster fullerene, which contains 60 carbons, has the same diameter. Despite the large molecular weight, because C60 is approximately spherical is minimal. Even so, C60 can be made to cage other molecules, including some used for medical imaging purposes.