| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
|
|
|
|||||||
|
|||||||||
Nanoscience and bioscience are natural "dance" partners. They share a common scale, nominally between 1 and 100 nm, although the range is flexible, especially on the upside. Dancing is easier when partners are the same size. The partnership has even named a new field, nanomedicine, now a priority on the National Institutes of Health roadmap. But beyond scale, what is driving the dance? Will it mature to a lasting and productive relationship between the partners?
Nanotechnology is a collection of technologies with origins in the physical sciences. Most nanotechnologies can be placed in one of two categories: those that create synthetic nanomaterials and those that create instruments or manufacturing methods that operate on the nanoscale. Examples of nanomaterials that have unique properties include quantum dots, carbon nanotubes, and nanoscale gold particles. In their nanoscale form, these materials have properties not found in bulk forms because being small confines electrons to produce unique features. Quantum dots fluoresce intensely with emission wavelengths that are tuned with particle size, and they are highly resistant to quenching. Quantum dots are commercially available for research purposes to replace organic fluorophores, and they are being studied for whole-body fluorescence applications in the targeted identification of tumors. Carbon nanotubes can be either conductors or semiconductors, depending on structural details, and in the semiconducting form are components of the smallest transistors known, with diameters in the 1-nm range. Applications of carbon nanotubes range from use as nanoscale biosensors to thermal ablation of tumors to use as artificial extracellular matrices. Gold in bulk is the color gold, but the color ranges from green to red for gold nanoparticles, depending on size and shape. Bioassays that monitor the aggregation and associated color changes in gold nanoparticles are well developed. There are also new nanoscale materials with applications in the biosciences that do not depend on electromagnetic properties of the material. One very active area uses synthetic block copolymers that self-aggregate into nanoscale micelles, designed for drug and reagent delivery to cells in the intact animal. These are just a few of the many new nanoscale materials that are impacting the biosciences.
In the instrumentation category, scanning-tunneling and atomic-force microscopies are founding instruments of the nanotechnology era. Originally developed for the physical characterization of materials, they are increasingly used in biological applications that range from high-resolution characterization of biomolecules to the precise nanoscale positioning of DNA and other macromolecules in defined arrays. On the manufacturing side, top-down lithographic techniques are firmly in the nanoscale dimensions, and the production of machines with moving parts in the nanoscale is possible. One application that relies on integrating different manufacturing techniques is developing neuronal/ machine interfaces. It is impressive when thought alone moves a cursor on a computer screen or when an amputee moves a mechanical limb by using neurons that originally operated the real limb, both of which have been accomplished. Development of the neuronal/machine interfaces will only improve as nanoscale manufacturing improves the performance of components involved on both the biological and the machine sides.
In short, nanoscience contributes exotic materials and new methods that allow biosciences to do old things better and to do completely new things. But there are challenges to the partnership. One is the potential for nanomaterials toxicity, to workers employed in the production of nano-materials, to patients treated with nanomaterials, and to the environment. Many nanomaterials present collections of atoms that have never been encountered by living systems. Hence, another new field is born, nanotoxicity. Dancing may be hazardous to your health.
Another challenge is getting the partners together, not to mention moving to the same beat. Nanotechnologists and bioscientists are often on different campuses or at least in different buildings on opposite sides of campus. Those who should be engaged are often not and may fail to communicate effectively even when together. It takes time and effort to cross disciplines, and both partners must move out of their respective comfort zones. Dancers have audiences, and if the dance is good, some who watch will be moved to participate. The audiences in this case are readers of journals. There are several new journals that target the partnership of nanoscience with bioscience and incorporate the terms nano and bio in their titles, but the readers of these journals by and large are already on the dance floor. New audiences can be touched by doing what Steve Goodman as Editor- in-Chief of Experimental Biology and Medicine has done: take an established biomedical journal and specifically add sections that cover new scientific interdisciplinary areas, such as bionanoscience. We have been fortunate to recruit a stellar collection of editorial board members with expertise at the bio/nano interface in a variety of systems. We encourage you, the reader, to participate in the nanoscience/bioscience partnership by reading and submitting articles in this area. Dancing can be fun.
Acknowledgments
I thank Carole Mikoryak for help with this editorial.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
