Forbes reports that the National Institutes of Health have published a set of future-looking scenarios called the Roadmap for Medical Research. Nanotechnology figures heavily in the NIH's plans, particularly where the treatment of cancer is concerned:
[N]owhere is the use of nanotech in medical advances more critical than at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), which sees the potential for nanoscience to dramatically enhance our ability to effectively detect cancer, deliver targeted therapeutics and monitor the effectiveness of cancer interventions.
Read the whole article to get a better picture of the kinds of developments they're talking about. This section, in particular, got my attention:
Another entirely new platform for cancer therapy is being developed by James Baker, the director of the Center For Biologic Nanotechnology at the University of Michigan. His is based on dendrimers, molecules shaped like spheres and made up of nanoscale polymers in a very specific pattern, sometimes resembling a complex snowflake.
Baker has functionalized these dendrimers to create smart-therapeutic nanodevices that will be used to treat disease. One type seeks out and recognizes only cancer cells. Another type can diagnose what type of cancer it is, while a third type of dendrimer is able to deliver drugs to destroy it. A fourth type can report the location of the tumor to a doctor (a labeling molecule for X-ray or MRI), and yet another can confirm that a cancer cell has been killed. Typically each one of these processes is lengthy, expensive and indiscriminate towards healthy cells. Integrating them into one larger molecule creates a nanodevice able to perform them all at once while leaving healthy cells unscathed.
Think of it: a treatment for cancer that doesn't make you vomit or cause your hair to fall out. And that might actually work.
As I noted a while back, this would be what Glenn Reynolds would classify as a "major" (rather than a "spooky" development) in the nanotechnology space. These are the kinds of breakthroughs that are going to lead us to true nanotechnology. (Including the spooky stuff.)
via KurzweilAI.net