Nanotechnology operates at the scale of single atoms and molecules. This new technology is not only expected to create new industries based on "molecular manufacturing" but also to transform medicine, for example by the development of tiny biosensors that can introduced in the blood stream and be active in human cells or tissues. These tiny biosensors could be used to monitor the body or to guide targeted drug delivery. Tiny "nanorobots" could travel through the human body and identify and isolate or kill cancer cells. In many ways, nanotechnology could allow to improve human performance far beyond what its normal limits.. Already in 1986 Eric Drexler wrote about "the coming era of nanotechnology" in which medicine would not only be able to tackle disease but to create health. Nanotechnology is now believed to link up with biotechnology in what Mihail C. Roco calls "Converging Technologies for Improving Human Performance." (NSF, 2002) .
REFERENCES
Mihail C. Roco and William Sims Bainbridge (2002) Converging Technologies for Improving Human Performance. Nanotechnology, Biotechnology, Information Technology and Cognitive Science 482 pages
Available at
http://www.wtec.org/ConvergingTechnologies/1/NBIC_report.pdf
K. Eric Drexler (1986) Engines of Creation. The Coming Era of Nanotechnology Anchor Books, 320 pages
Available at
http://www.e-drexler.com/d/06/00/EOC/EOC_Cover.html
For Nanomedicine in the context of a general overview of Gene therapy see page 124-125 of
Evelyn B. Kelly (2007) Gene therapy, Greenwood Press, 198 pages
Ongoing.
