- Nanobiotechnology
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Part of a series of articles on Nanotechnology Nanomaterials Nanomedicine - Nanotoxicology
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Molecular self-assembly Nanoelectronics Scanning probe microscopy Molecular nanotechnology Nanotechnology Portal Bionanotechnology, nanobiotechnology, and nanobiology are terms that refer to the intersection of nanotechnology and biology.[1] Given that the subject is one that has only emerged very recently, bionanotechnology and nanobiotechnology serve as blanket terms for various related technologies.
This discipline helps to indicate the merger of biological research with various fields of nanotechnology. Concepts that are enhanced through nanobiology include: nanodevices, nanoparticles, and nanoscale phenomena that occurs within the disciple of nanotechnology. This technical approach to biology allows scientists to imagine and create systems that can be used for biological research. Biologically-inspired nanotechnology uses biological systems as the inspirations for technologies not yet created. We can learn from eons of evolution that have resulted in elegant systems that are naturally created.[2]
The most important objectives that are frequently found in nanobiology involve applying nanotools to relevant medical/biological problems and refining these applications. Developing new tools for the medical and biological fields is another primary objective in nanotechnology. New nanotools are often made by refining the applications of the nanotools that are already being used. The imaging of native biomolecules, biological membranes, and tissues is also a major topic for the nanobiology researchers. Other topics concerning nanobiology include the use of cantilever array sensors and the application of nanophotonics for manipulating molecular processes in living cells.[3]
As with nanotechnology and biotechnology, bionanotechnology has many potential ethical issues associated with it.
Contents
Terminology
The terms are often used interchangeably. When a distinction is intended, though, it is based on whether the focus is on applying biological ideas or on studying biology with nanotechnology. Bionanotechnology generally refers to the study of how the goals of nanotechnology can be guided by studying how biological "machines" work and adapting these biological motifs into improving existing nanotechnologies or creating new ones [4][5]. Nanobiotechnology, on the other hand, refers to the ways that nanotechnology is used to create devices to study biological systems [6].
In other words, nanobiotechnology is essentially miniaturized biotechnology, whereas bionanotechnology is a specific application of nanotechnology. For example, DNA nanotechnology or cellular engineering would be classified as bionanotechnology because they involve working with biomolecules on the nanoscale. Conversely, many new medical technologies involving nanoparticles as delivery systems or as sensors would be examples of nanobiotechnology since they involve using nanotechnology to advance the goals of biology.
The definitions enumerated above will be utilized whenever a distinction between nanobio and bionano is made in this article. However, given the overlapping usage of the terms in modern parlance, individual technologies may need to be evaluated to determine which term is more fitting. As such, they are best discussed in parallel.
Concepts
Most of the scientific concepts in bionanotechnology are derived from other fields. Biochemical principles that are used to understand the material properties of biological systems are central in bionanotechnology because those same principles are to be used to create new technologies. Material properties and applications studied in bionanoscience include mechanical properties(e.g. deformation, adhesion, failure), electrical/electronic (e.g. electromechanical stimulation, capacitors, energy storage/batteries), optical (e.g. absorption, luminescence, photochemistry), thermal (e.g. thermomutability, thermal management), biological (e.g. how cells interact with nanomaterials, molecular flaws/defects, biosensing, biological mechanisms s.a. mechanosensing), nanoscience of disease (e.g. genetic disease, cancer, organ/tissue failure), as well as computing (e.g. DNA computing). The impact of bionanoscience, achieved through structural and mechanistic analyses of biological processes at nanoscale, is their translation into synthetic and technological applications through nanotechnology.
Nanobiotechnology takes most of its fundamentals from nanotechnology. Most of the devices designed for nanobiotechnological use are directly based on other existing nanotechnologies. Nanobiotechnology is often used to describe the overlapping multidisciplinary activities associated with biosensors, particularly where photonics, chemistry, biology, biophysics, nanomedicine, and engineering converge. Measurement in biology using waveguide techniques, such as dual polarisation interferometry, are another example.
Applications
Applications of bionanotechnology are extremely widespread. Insofar as the distinction holds, nanobiotechnology is much more commonplace in that it simply provides more tools for the study of biology. Bionanotechnology, on the other hand, promises to recreate biological mechanisms and pathways in a form that is useful in other ways.
Nanobiotechnology
Nanobiotechnology (sometimes referred to as nanobiology) is best described as helping modern medicine progress from treating symptoms to generating cures and regenerating biological tissues. Three American patients have received whole cultured bladders with the help of doctors who use nanobiology techniques in their practice. Also, it has been demonstrated in animal studies that a uterus can be grown outside the body and then placed in the body in order to produce a baby. Stem cell treatments have been used to fix diseases that are found in the human heart and are in clinical trials in the United States. There is also funding for research into allowing people to have new limbs without having to resort to prosthesis. Artificial proteins might also become available to manufacture without the need for harsh chemicals and expensive machines. It has even been surmised that by the year 2055, computers may be made out of biochemicals and organic salts.[7]
Another example of current nanobiotechnological research involves nanospheres coated with fluorescent polymers. Researchers are seeking to design polymers whose fluorescence is quenched when they encounter specific molecules. Different polymers would detect different metabolites. The polymer-coated spheres could become part of new biological assays, and the technology might someday lead to particles which could be introduced into the human body to track down metabolities associated with tumors and other health problems. Another example, from a different perspective, would be evaluation and therapy at the nanoscopic level, i.e. the treatment of Nanobacteria (25-200 nm sized) as is done by NanoBiotech Pharma.
While nanobiology is in its infacy, there are a lot of promising methods that will rely on nanobiology in the future. Biological systems are inherently nano in scale; nanoscience must merge with biology in order to deliver biomacromolecules and molecular machines that are similar to nature. Controlling and mimicking the devices and processes that are constructed from molecules is a tremendous challenge to face the converging disciplines of nanotechnology.[8] All living things, including humans, can be considered to be nanofoundries. Natural evolution has optimized the "natural" form of nanobiology over millions of years. In the 21st century, humans have developed the technology to artifically tap into nanobiology. This process is best described as "organic merging with synthetic." Colonies of live neurons can live together on a biochip device; according to research from Dr. Gunther Gross at the University of North Texas. Self-assembling nanotubes have the ability to be used as a structural system. They would be composed together with rhodopsins; which would faciliate the optical computing process and help with the storage of biological materials. DNA (as the software for all living things) can be used as a structual proteomic system - a logical component for molecular computing. Ned Seeman - a researcher at New York University - along with other researchers are currently researching concepts that are similar to each other.[9]
Nanobiology may play a role in a radical level of change. Various aspects of applied and theoretical nanotechnology could help to function as virtual assets on the Internet; which may become a newly formed socio-economic substrate system making up the "virtual landscape." Expanding technologies and a changing socio-economic system might reshape every aspect of life that is currently understood. A matrix of mass media may come out of all these technological advances related to nanobiology. This could create an interactive bi-directional experiential knowledge conveyance system experience. Biological metaphors in computing are being used to create the biological and physical materials that are needed in order to guide the next step in human evolution. The P53 protein, a product of nanobiology, can literally shut down the metabolism of living cells. This protein is considered to be a prime candidate as a cure for certain cancers. Cancer cells have a genetic identity different from the "host" cell and can be targets for P53 delivery.[10]
Bionanotechnology
DNA nanotechnology is one important example of bionanotechnology. The utilization of the inherent properties of nucleic acids like DNA to create useful materials is a promising area of modern research. Another important area of research involves taking advantage of membrane properties to generate synthetic membranes. Protein folding studies provide a third important avenue of research, but one that has been largely inhibited by our inability to predict protein folding with a sufficiently high degree of accuracy. Given the myriad uses that biological systems have for proteins, though, research into understanding protein folding is of high importance and could prove fruitful for bionanotechnology in the future.
Tools
This field relies on a variety of research methods, including experimental tools (e.g. imaging, characterization via AFM/optical tweezers etc., x-ray diffraction based tools, synthesis via self-assembly, characterization of self-assembly (using e.g. dual polarization interferometry, recombinant DNA methods, etc.), theory (e.g. statistical mechanics, nanomechanics, etc.), as well as computational approaches (bottom-up multi-scale simulation, supercomputing).
See also
References
- ^ Ehud Gazit, Plenty of room for biology at the bottom: An introduction to bionanotechnology. Imperial College Press, 2007, ISBN 9781860946776
- ^ "Nanobiology". Nanotech-Now.com. http://www.nanotech-now.com/columns/?article=097.
- ^ "Nanobiology". Swiss Nanoscience Institute. http://www.nanoscience.ch/nccr/research/module_01.
- ^ http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Bionanotechnology
- ^ Nolting B, “Biophysical Nanotechnology”. In: “Methods in Modern Biophysics”, Springer, 2005, ISBN 3-540-27703-X
- ^ http://www.nbtc.cornell.edu/
- ^ "The future of nano-biology". ZD Net. http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/the-future-of-nano-biology-regenerating-tissue-and-artificial-proteins/1442.
- ^ "Nanobiology: from physics and engineering to biology". IOP Science. http://iopscience.iop.org/1478-3975/3/1/E01.
- ^ "The Nanobiology Imperative". HistorianoftheFuture.com. http://www.historianofthefuture.com/nanobio.html.
- ^ "Nanobiology - Where Nanotechnology and Biology Come Together". Biota.org. http://www.biota.org/ostman/nanobio.htm.
External links
- What is Bionanotechnology?—a video introduction to the field
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