Nanotechnology In Medical Application

One area of nanotechnology application that holds the promise of providing great benefits for society in the future is in the realm of medicine. Nanotechnology is already being used as the basis for new, more effective drug delivery systems and is in early stage development as scaffolding in nerve regeneration research. Moreover, the National Cancer Institute has created the Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer in the hope that investments in this branch of nanomedicine could lead to breakthroughs in terms of detecting, diagnosing, and treating various forms of cancer.

Nanotechnology is also making possible the stimulation of the body’s own mechanisms to successfully repair diseased or damaged tissues, replacing the need for transplants and artificial organs. In the foreseeable future, nanotechnology as applied to medicine, will lead to advancement in remote monitoring and care, where a patient may be treated at home - a less expensive option, and one that is more conducive to a successful medical outcome than treatment in a surgery or hospital.

Apply Nanotechnology To Prostate Cancer Therapy

A team of scientists from the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center has received one of 10 creativity awards from the Prostate Cancer Foundation for advanced prostate cancer research. The one-year awards are designed to support innovative ideas that have the potential to achieve breakthroughs for the detection and treatment of prostate cancer.

Their work involves nanoscale fabrication technology that may provide new modeling capabilities and therapies to arrest lethal prostate cancer progression.

The Lineberger team members include Shelton Earp, M.D., professor of medicine and pharmacology and center director; Joseph DeSimone, Ph.D., Chancellor’s Eminent Professor of Chemistry in the UNC College of Arts and Sciences; and Young Whang, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of medicine in the UNC School of Medicine.

Earp, Whang and colleagues discovered that a signaling molecule named Ack1 can cause low-grade, tumorigenic prostate cancer cells to become androgen-independent, the state that results in advanced human prostate cancer. Other UNC scientists, led by DeSimone, have developed a nanoparticle drug delivery technology.

The scientists plan to model widely spread prostate cancer using Ack1-driven prostate cancer cells to test whether DeSimone’s nanoparticles can be targeted to the cancer, both to detect its location and to carry effective treatment that is not toxic to the rest of the body.

Do You Know Nano?

The Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies is a fast-paced science policy group within the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC. The Project serves as a neutral, nonpartisan forum for study, discussion, and debate of the issues surrounding nanotechnology policy. The Project has become a reference point for information and analysis of these issues as it strives to bring the voices of policymakers, industry, and academia together to promote a fair and rational consideration of the risks and benefits of nanotechnology.

The Project is seeking qualified interns for Fall/Winter 2009. The Project’s internship program provides graduate and undergraduate level students an exciting opportunity to work the world of science policy and learn about the rapidly expanding field of nanotechnology. Past interns have worked with former officials of the EPA, FDA, and NIOSH on analyses of research and regulatory priorities at those agencies, and helped coordinate focus groups and national polls, prepare congressional testimony, compile the largest and most comprehensive database available of consumer products containing nanotechnologies—and worked on many other projects. For more information on the internship program at the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies, please see the Intern Position Announcement. Questions? Email nano@wilsoncenter.org with Intern in the subject line. Applications are due by August 22, 2009.

findNano App Puts Nanotech in Your Pocket

WASHINGTON – The Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies (PEN) has developed findNano, an application for Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch that lets users discover and determine whether consumer products are nanotechnology-enabled. Nanotechnology, the emerging technology of using materials by engineering them at an incredibly small scale, has applications ranging from consumer electronics to improved drug delivery systems.

findNano allows users to browse an inventory of more than 1,000 nanotechnology-enabled consumer products, from sporting goods to food products and electronics to toys, using the iPhone and iPod Touch. Using the built-in camera, iPhone users can even submit new nanotech products to be included in future inventory updates.

The new application makes PEN’s unique Consumer Products Inventory more accessible for today’s consumers. The inventory, which was launched in 2006, is the leading source of information on manufacturer-identified nanotechnology consumer products around the world.

“The Consumer Products Inventory provides valuable insight into the world of nanotech consumer products, and now it’s even easier to access because of findNano,” says PEN Research Associate Patrick Polischuk. “This innovative tool satisfies the needs of citizen scientists, tech-savvy consumers, and those who are merely curious about whether products contain nanomaterials.”

The number of nanotech products in the inventory has risen from approximately 200 in 2006 to more than 1,000 today. But this is most likely an underestimate of the number of products using nanotechnology available worldwide. To help develop better estimates of the number of nano-based products in commerce, the iPhone app allows users to submit information on new products, including product name and where the product can be purchased.

Using findNano, users can take or select a photo of a possible nanotech product and submit it for inclusion in the PEN inventory. This feature will help consumers, researchers, and policymakers determine how—and where—nanotechnologies are entering the marketplace.

findNano is available as a free download for the iPhone and iPod Touch, and can be found in the iTunes App Store or at nanotechproject.org/iphone.

Reinventing Technology Assessment for the 21st Century

WASHINGTON—A new report from the Science and Technology Innovation Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars defines the criteria for a new technology assessment function in the United States. The report, Reinventing Technology Assessment: A 21st Century Model, emphasizes the need to incorporate citizen-participation methods to complement expert analysis. Government policymakers, businesses, non-governmental organizations, and citizens need such analysis to capably navigate the technology-intensive world in which we now live.

The U.S. Congress set a global precedent in 1972 when it created an Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), but then reversed course in 1995 by shutting down the OTA. In the meantime, 18 European Technology Assessment agencies are flourishing and have pioneered important new methods, including Participatory Technology Assessment (pTA). By educating and engaging laypeople, pTA is unique in enabling decision-makers to learn their constituents’ informed views regarding emerging developments in science and technology. pTA also deepens the social and ethical analysis of technology. European pTA methods have been adapted, tested, and proven in the U.S. at least 16 times by university-based groups and independent nonprofit organizations.

“We style ourselves as living in a ‘technological society’ and an ‘information age,’” notes report author Dr. Richard Sclove, “yet we lack adequate information about – of all things! – the broad implications of science and technology.”

As the pace of technological change quickens and the Obama Administration moves forward on its Open Government Initiative, the time is ripe to institutionalize a robust national TA capability incorporating both expert and participatory TA methods. The Internet and social networking capacities make it possible to organize such an endeavor on a distributed, agile and open basis, harnessing collaborative efficiencies and supporting broad public engagement.

“In the 15 years since OTA was closed, TA has progressed significantly in Europe. It is time for the U.S. to institutionalize a serious, continuous and nonpartisan capability to assess the broad social, ethical, legal, and economic impacts of emerging science and technology in areas such as nanotechnology, biotechnology, and earth systems engineering,” said David Rejeski, who directs the Wilson Center program.

In the report, Dr. Sclove recommends creating a nationwide Expert & Citizen Assessment of Science & Technology (ECAST) network that will combine the skills of nonpartisan policy research organizations with the research strengths of universities and the public outreach and education capabilities of science museums. Founding partners in ECAST include the Science and Technology Innovation Program at the Wilson Center,, the Boston Museum of Science, Arizona State University, ScienceCheerleader, and the Loka Institute.

Report author Richard Sclove, Ph.D. is founder and senior fellow of the Loka Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to making science and technology responsive to democratically decided priorities.

The report can be downloaded at http://www.wilsoncenter.org/techassessment

Nanotech-enabled Consumer Products Top the 1,000 Mark

Over 1,000 nanotechnology-enabled products have been made available to consumers around the world, according to the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies (PEN). The most recent update to the group’s three-and-a-half-year-old inventory reflects the increasing use of the tiny particles in everything from conventional products like non-stick cookware and lighter, stronger tennis racquets, to more unique items such as wearable sensors that monitor posture.

“The use of nanotechnology in consumer products continues to grow rapidly,” says PEN Director David Rejeski. “When we launched the inventory in March 2006 we only had 212 products. If the introduction of new products continues at the present rate, the number of products listed in the inventory will reach close to 1,600 within the next two years. This will provide significant oversight challenges for agencies like the Food and Drug Administration and Consumer Product Safety Commission, which often lack any mechanisms to identify nanotech products before they enter the marketplace.”

Health and fitness items continue to dominate the PEN inventory, representing 60 percent of products listed. More products are based on nanoscale silver—used for its antimicrobial properties—than any other nanomaterial; 259 products (26 percent of the inventory) use silver nanoparticles. The updated inventory represents products from over 24 countries, including the US, China, Canada, and Germany. This update also identifies products that were previously available, but for which there is no current information.

The release of the updated inventory coincides with a public hearing on the agenda and priorities of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) where project director David Rejeski testified. The CPSC, with a staff of fewer than 400 employees, oversees the safety of 15,000 types of consumer products.

Andrew Maynard, chief science advisor for PEN, noted that “the CPSC deserves credit for focusing on nanotechnologies. The resources available to the agency to address health and safety issues are negligible compared to the over $1.5 billion federal investment in nanotechnology research and development.”

The inventory is available at http://www.nanotechproject.org/inventories/consumer/

The PEN consumer products inventory includes products that have been identified by their manufacturer or a credible source as being nanotechnology-based. This update identifies products that were previously sold, but which may no longer be available. It remains the most comprehensive and widely used source of information on nanotechnology-enabled consumer products in the world.

Download project director David Rejeski’s testimony before the CPSC here.

nanoscience and nanotechnology

Nanoscience, nanotechnology, or nanotech, are all used to describe the same dynamic new field of applied science. Simply put, nanotechnology is the study and development of components measuring 100 nanometers (one billionth of a meter) or less. At these dimensions, matter begins to exhibit different characteristics. Aluminum explodes on contact with the air. Carbon can become a one-dimensional material, and conduct electricity better than copper.

The concept of nanoscience was first broached by Dr. Richard Feynman, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist who helped develop the atom bomb and did much to make physics popularly comprehensible through a series of lectures and books. In a 1959 speech that speculated on the immense potential of a conflux between biology and manufacturing, Dr. Feynman described the intricacy with which biological cells manufacture substances in natural bodies, and challenged his audience to “consider the possibility that we, too, can make a thing very small, which does what we want—that we can manufacture an object that maneuvers at that level.”

The actual word “nanotechnology” was coined by Tokyo Science University Professor Norio Taniguchi in 1974, to describe the manufacture of materials with at the level of a billionth of a meter. The term was popularized by controversial researcher Dr. K. Eric Drexler in a book that proposed the idea of manufacturing an “assembler” of nanoscale matter.

The applications of nanotechnology have been both expansive and prosaic. The implications, however, are still under scrutiny. While it is exciting to see products of startling efficiency and low cost result from this technology, and to speculate on the near possibility of cures for cancer, further research is essential to development this emergent technology in its most beneficial form possible.