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Gaming the Future: The Book!

Category: Future Medicine

Beautiful Nanorings Could Become Nanoscale Sensors

Roland Piquepaille writes "Researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology have created nanorings of single-crystal zinc oxide. Because of the semiconducting and piezoelectric properties of the material, these nanostructures could serve as nanometer-scale sensors, resonators and transducers, according to this article from nanotechweb.org. These perfectly circular nanorings range in diameter from one to four microns and are 10-30 nanometers thick. They could be used to build implantable sensors for real-time monitoring of such biomedical measures as blood pressure, blood flow rate and stress at the level of single cells. This overview contains more details and references. It also contains an image of such a beautiful zinc-oxide circular nanoring."

AFM Virus Detector

JohnFaith writes "This article on nanotechweb.org describes a new virus detector using an AFM."

Nanoshells, a potential cancer therapy

WillWare writes "From Ananova, a story about Jennifer West's work at Rice University on "nanoshells", remniscent of earlier work at Sloan-Kettering:"

Tiny golden "bullets" could eventually be used to target and destroy cancerous tumours while leaving healthy tissue unharmed… researchers used nanoshells – tiny particles of silica coated with gold – to apply heat to tumours and destroy them using near-infrared light, a type of low-energy radiation.

Billionaire funding life extension research

From Wired: John Sperling Wants You to Live Forever (And he's Promising $3 billion to make it so.) "For the past seven years, Sperling has quietly assembled an unorthodox team of researchers poised to use all relevant technology – including, ultimately, therapeutic cloning, stem cell medicine, and genetic engineering – to alleviate human suffering and the fear of death."

'Nano-Cameras' Look Inside Cells

Roland Piquepaille writes "Here is another fascinating story. In "Nanotech spy eyes life inside the cell," the New Scientist writes that researchers at Indiana University in Bloomington are using viruses carrying gold nanoparticles as 'nano-cameras' to image living cells and understand how the viruses do their work. The researchers took a virus that infects barley, put it in an alkaline solution and introduced the gold nanoparticles in the solution. Then they fired a green laser. When the laser hit the gold, it went in many directions, revealing what's inside the cell. Now, they have to test this technique on real plant cells. If it works, scientists will be able to really look at individual viruses. This summary contains more details and an illustration."

Nanoscaffoldings Help Growing Neurons

Roland Piquepaille writes "Scientists at Northwestern University have designed the smallest scaffoldings in the world made of self-assembling structures built from synthetic molecules. This news release says that these nanostructures can promote neuron growth. This could lead to "the reversal of paralysis due to spinal cord injury." This research has important potential because, as says Nature, "every year in the United States alone, about 15,000 people damage their spines [and] few recover fully." The results of this research work have been published by Science (free registration needed to read the abstract). This summary contains more details and excerpts."

Squid's Flashlight May Lead to New Nanolights

Roland Piquepaille writes "Several articles appeared yesterday about how a small Hawaiian squid is using reflective plates to confuse predators, paving the way for a new generation of optical nanotechnology tools. Here are two short stories from Scientific American, "Squid May Inspire New Nanolights," and from Ananova, "Nature's 'searchlight' could leave inventors squids in." Scientific American says that this small squid has "a built-in flashlight made up of a previously unknown type of protein." The authors of the study called it "reflectin". I'm not sure if this will lead to future nanolight tools, but Ananova reports that "the structure of the reflecting plates could offer inspiration to nanotechnology designers." This overview contains more details and includes a picture of the cute three-inch-long Hawaiian bobtail squid."

Neural regeneration from stem cells

Stuart Scott writes "It appears that these researchers may be on to something very interesting. http://www.hhmi.org/news/stevens2.html"

Editor's note: What Stuart is referring to is the news in a press relase from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (2 May 2002), which begins:

Researchers have discovered that astrocytes ó brain cells once thought to be little more than a component of the supportive scaffold for neurons ó may actually play a starring role in triggering the maturation and proliferation of adult neural stem cells. The studies also suggest that growth factors produced by astrocytes may be critical in regenerating brain or spinal tissue that has been damaged by trauma or disease.

New Nanomed device: Replace Blood

ChrisPhoenix writes "Robert Freitas and I have published a paper on a rather aggressive nanomedical device that lines your blood vessels and replaces the blood. The paper covers benefits, requirements, installation, and more, with tons of medical information from Robert's amazing bank of knowledge. It's almost a megabyte and has 587 references. You can find it at The Journal of Evolution and Technology.

Vasculoid: A Personal Nanomedical Appliance to Replace Human Blood.
Robert A. Freitas Jr. and Christopher J. Phoenix

ABSTRACT

The vasculoid is a single, complex, multisegmented nanotechnological medical robotic system capable of duplicating all essential thermal and biochemical transport functions of the blood, including circulation of respiratory gases, glucose, hormones, cytokines, waste products, and cellular components. This nanorobotic system, a very aggressive and physiologically intrusive macroscale nanomedical device comprised of ~500 trillion stored or active individual nanorobots, weighs ~2 kg and consumes from 30-200 watts of power in the basic human model, depending on activity level. The vasculoid system conforms to the shape of existing blood vessels and serves as a complete replacement for natural blood. This paper presents a preliminary theoretical scaling analysis including transport capacity, thermal conduction, control and biocompatibility considerations, along with a hypothetical installation scenario and a description of some useful optional equipment. A discussion of repair procedures and various applications of the personal vasculoid appliance is deferred to subsequent papers.

(I'll be doing a Friday night SIG on this at the upcoming Senior Associate Gathering.)"

Debate on U.S. ban on human cloning intensifies

Gina Miller writes "In Dispute Over Cloning Experiments Intensifies, The New York Times reported on the debate in the Senate, as of March 6, 2002, on a proposal to ban all human cloning, including therapeutic cloning (also called 'somatic cell nuclear transfer', or SCNT), in which nearly microscopic balls of a few hundred cells are produced to provide stem cells for medical treatments that might cure diseases that are today incurable. The total ban has already been passed by the House and is being pushed by Pres. Bush. Actor Christopher Reeve argued passionately that therapeutic cloning should go forward because '…we have a moral responsibility to help others. Time is absolutely critical.' Supporting Mr. Reeve was Nobel laureate molecular biologist Paul Berg and Jerry Zucker, a movie producer who hopes that therapeutic cloning will provide a cure for the diabetes his daughter suffers from. Proponents of a ban railed against 'human embryo hatcheries.' United Press International Opposition grows to total ban on cloning provides additional detail about the same Senate testimony, quoting Reeve 'I'm here today because I'm very concerned we're about to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory … It is amazing to me that we have to be here today, because it's so clear that embryonic stem cells … are a miracle that could be available to us, yet there's a fear factor in this country that's really very disturbing to watch.'

A month later, as reported by Reuters on April 10 (Bush Backs Ban of All Human Cloning) and by The New York Times on April 11, 2002 (Bush Makes Fervent Bid to Get Senate to Ban Cloning Research) Bush urged the Senate to pass the bill outlawing all forms of cloning. A counter plea from 40 Nobel laureate scientists urged support of legislation that would allow therapeutic cloning."

Read more for an extensive set of links to background pieces on the developing debate over human cloning.

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