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Nanomedical Innovation Revisited
(Wednesday September 14 2005)
 | You might recall a clever delivery mechanism for cancer drugs based on the latest in nanoscale engineering: here we have another delivery mechanism for cancer therapies crafted using a completely different branch of nanotechnology. It's equally clever, however: "The vehicles look nothing like delivery trucks, though that is their function once inside the body. Instead, these so-called nanoparticles, which are assembled from three short pieces of ribonucleic acid, resemble miniature triangles. The microscopic particles possess both the right size to gain entry into cells and also the right structure to carry other therapeutic strands of RNA inside with them, where they are able to halt viral growth or cancer's progress." Advanced, low-cost biotechnology will give rise to a whole new generation of ingenuity and experimentation - we are seeing but the smallest first step. |
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