1. Nanotechnology
&
Medicine

2. Nanoscience
• The prefix “nano”is a Greek word for “dwarf”
• One nanometer (nm) is equal to one-billionth of a
meter
• About a width of 6 carbon atoms or 10 water
molecules
• A human hair is approximately 80,000 nm wide
• Red blood cells is 7000 nm wide
• Atoms are smaller than 1 nanometer
• Molecules and some proteins are between 1 nm
and above

3. Nanoscience
• The concept of nanotechnology was first
coined by Richard Feynman in 1959 in his
lecture “There’s plenty of room at the
bottom”
• Manipulating material at a scale of
individual atoms and molecules
• Imagining the whole Encyclopedia
Britannica written on head of a pin

4. Nanoscience
• At IBM in the US, a technique called
electron beam lithography was used to
create nanostructures and devices as small
as 40 to 70 nm in the early 1970s

5. Nanotechnology in Medicine
Nanotechnology is a new field with many
possible uses, medicine being one of them

6. Nanotechnology
• “The manufacturing technology of the 21 st
century"
• The study and manufacture of devices of
molecular dimensions, in the range of
nanometers or one-billionth of a meter
• Most of industrial manufacturing processes
are based on top-down technologies -- i.e.,
they take larger objects and make them
smaller yielding products of fairly high
precision and complexity

7. Nanotechnology
DNA serves as a data-storage system,
transmitting digital instructions to
molecular machines e.g., the ribosomes,
that manufacture protein molecules.

8. Nanomedicine
• Some medicines are made through
biotechnological processes, for example those
using recombinant DNA (human hepatitis
vaccine)
• Under these processes the DNA of living creatures
(usually bacteria) is altered
• Nanotechnology represents a similar approach to
the manufacture of pharmaceuticals and other
goods.

9. Nanorobots: Medicine of the Future
• What are they?
• Nanorobots are nanodevices that will be used for
the purpose of maintaining and protecting the
human body against pathogens.
• They will have a diameter of about 0.5 to 3
microns and will be constructed out of parts with
dimensions in the range of 1 to 100 nanometers

10. Nanorobots
• The powering of the nanorobots can be done by
metabolizing local glucose and oxygen for energy
• Other sources of energy within the body can also
be used to supply the necessary energy for the
devices
• They will have simple onboard computers capable
of performing around 1000 or fewer computations
per second.

11. Nanorobots
• A navigational network may be installed in
the body, which may provide high
positional accuracy to all passing
nanorobots
• This will enable the physician to keep track
of the various devices in the body

12. “A microscopic
machine roaming
through the
bloodstream,
injecting or taking
samples for
identification and
determining the
concentrations of
different
compounds"

13. A single
inhaled
nanorobot
reaches,
deeply
inspired into
the lungs,
enters an
alveolar duct
and attaches
to the tissue
surface.

14. Mechanical
drilling of a
small tumor
mass by a
nanorobot

15. Therapeutic Applications of
Nanotechnology in Medicine
• Nanotechnology also theoretically allows the
mimicking of natural biological processes e.g.,
repair of damaged tissues
– Using nanotech to build scaffoldings of
artificial molecules that bone cells often adhere
to and grow bones on
– Broken bones would heal much faster.
• Transport of oxygen within the body by creating
an artificial red blood cell

16. Therapeutic Applications of
Nanotechnology in Medicine
To cure skin diseases, a cream containing
nanorobots may be used it may:
- Remove the right amount of dead skin
- Remove excess oils
- Add missing oils
- Apply the right amounts of natural
moisturising compounds
- Achieve the elusive goal of 'deep pore
cleaning' by actually reaching down into pores
and cleaning them out.

17. Therapeutic Applications of
Nanotechnology in Medicine
A mouthwash full of smart nanomachines
could identify and destroy pathogenic
bacteria while allowing the harmless flora
of the mouth to flourish in a healthy
ecosystem

18. Dental
Robots
Four remote-controlled nanorobots examine
and clean the subocclusal surfaces of a
patient's teeth, near the gumline.

19. Therapeutic Applications of
Nanotechnology in Medicine
Medical
nanodevices
could augment the
immune system
by finding and
disabling
unwanted bacteria
and viruses.

20. A NANOROBOT NIBBLING ON AN ATHEROSCLEROTIC DEPOSIT IN A
BLOOD VESSEL

21. “Stinger"
nanorobot
grabs a sick T
lymphocyte
and injects a
glucocorticoid
designed to
induce
cellular
apoptosis.

22. NANOTECHNOLOGY
• GOALS
• Construction of a nano-assembler
– A machine capable of building nanoprobes on a
grand scale
• The next step would be self-replication of
nanoprobes- mitosis
• Rough estimates say that this will be
reached in about 10-20 years

23. NANOTECHNOLOGY
• PREDICTIONS
• Predicting the future of nanotechnology is
much like trying to predict the remainder of
a motion picture from a single frame
• Although the future of medicine lies
unclear, it is certain that nanotechnology
will have a significant impact

24. Thank you!...