This study explores the application of nanotechnology in the treatment of diseases and creating artificial organs. Nanotechnology enables new types of therapies that do not use drugs. This would enable physicians to treat infections and tumors that resist medication and are difficult to remove surgically. Nanoparticles could also be used as diagnostics. Nanomaterials promise a combination of approaches that may overcome some of these limitations on drug delivery. Researchers believe that nanotechnology can also help us alter natural designs. If tissue engineering represents the promise of the future, then nanomedicine is the emerging reality of the present. Nanotherapeutics to treat pain and infectious diseases are under development as well. Nanotechnology is well suited for delivering medications. Experts have tested that rationally designed nanocarriers can take advantage of size and shape. Nanomedicine is rapidly moving into the mainstream and is poised to increasingly influence the treatment of diseases such as cancer.
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February 2013
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Rebuilding Ourselves
Ushering in an Age of Synthetic Organs and Targeted Medicine
Rohit Karnik is an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Robert S. Langer is David H. Koch Institute Professor at MIT, and has founded numerous companies, including BIND Biosciences. More than 250 pharmaceutical, chemical, biotechnology, and medical device companies license or sublicense his patents.
Mechanical Engineering. Feb 2013, 135(02): 30-35 (6 pages)
Published Online: February 1, 2013
Citation
Karnik, R., and Langer, R. S. (February 1, 2013). "Rebuilding Ourselves." ASME. Mechanical Engineering. February 2013; 135(02): 30–35. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.2013-FEB-1
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