The prefix ‘nano’ indicates the scale on which the latest scientific developments are taking place: one billionth of a metre. From nanotechnology, advances have appeared in what is called nanomedicine. 

The main objective of this variant of nanotechnology is to obtain cures for diseases from inside the body and at a cellular or molecular level. Devices smaller than the diameter of a human hair have even been developed.

Nanotechnology

By working at the scale of a nanometer, nanotechnology can currently be used in numerous areas of electronics, optics and biomedicine. This state-of-the-art development builds devices so small that they can only be measured on the molecular scale. Today the most important and safest advances are the nanodevices used to detect cancer in its early stages.

The nanoparticles can be between 100 and 10,000 times smaller than a human cell. Their size is similar to that of the larger biological molecules, such as enzymes. Nanoparticles smaller than 50 nanometers can easily enter any cell, while those smaller than 20 nanometers can move outside the blood vessels and circulate throughout the body.

Nanoparticles 

The use of nanoparticles to combat diseases such as cancer has been carried out successfully in rats by scientists Robert Langer and Omid Farokhzad. The nanoparticles are one thousandth the size of the full-stop at the end of this sentence. They are made up of carbon polymers that directly attack the cancer cells and destroy them without harming surrounding healthy cells. They act like guided missiles. This approach would make it possible to surpass the complications of chemotherapy. It is estimated that its full development will be complete in 2014.

Nanoscopic Beams

Small microscopic and flexible beams that are built with semiconductors using lithographic techniques. These beams are covered with molecules capable of adhering to specific DNA. If a cancer cell secretes its molecular products, the antibodies placed on the flexible beams will bind to the secreted proteins. This generates a change in the physical properties of these beams and researchers can read and interpret this information in real time.

Nanoparticles and Cells

To understand the scale at which nanoscopy works, we can compare the particles involved: a nanoparticle is to a cell what a grain of sand is to a football stadium.

Nanotubes

Nanotubes are structures whose diameter is on the order of a nanometre and whose length reaches up to a millimetre. They are the most resistant fibres known, between 10 and 100 times stronger than steel.