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The Future of Medicine: Nanorobotics

Can you imagine a typical visit to the doctor’s office with no examining, vaccinations nor any other forms of medications devised to diagnose your illness? Try to envision nanoscopic robots applied into your bloodstream instead. New techniques, procedures and developments have inevitably altered the way medicine is being practised. We vision humanity encased within a future of microscopic machinery and robots. This accelerated pace of scientific innovations reflects the quest to facilitate our needs, to extend our lives and ultimately to seek the Fountain of Youth. Robotic surgery has already been a technique utilized as an efficient minimally invasive approach in medicine today. Likewise, can you picture these same robots, however in a significantly smaller scale, infused in our bodies to diagnose, repair and restore? While nanotechnology is developping greatly in many fields, researchers are seeking to create nanorobots. Currently, researchers are looking into nanoporous particles that release drugs when applied onto our pores in the effort to prevent blindness related to diabetes. Sequencing our DNA strands will also become easily and efficiently decoded with the development of nanowires. Nanotechnology can be applied in all domains; however the question remains on how nanobots can be created.

Nanotechnology was introduced in 1959 and has created a new era with numerous breakthroughs which are found everywhere in our daily lives. Today, scientists are pondering the possibility of nanorobots used for applications which could develop a whole new facet of medicine. From imaging to diagnostics, every aspect will be changed if this astonishing technology is created. In medicine, nanotechnology displayed an array of innovations in the applications today.  Within a period of a few decades, nanoparticles were utilized to enhance MRI imaging and to deliver drugs into targeted cellular membranes.

The concept of nanorobots has brought out many questions as it can easily be misled. This idea can also seem as an abstract or unrealistic to some, as many questioned its feasibility. How will it be actually accomplished in reality? To fully grasp the idea, one must have understood what nanotechnology is. Nanotechnology is the study of phenomena of materials and atoms conducted at the nanoscale, which is about 1 to 100 nanometers. "At this scale, one nanometer is equivalent to 1 billionth of a meter, in other words, if a marble represented a nanometer, the Earth would theoretically measure one meter." The origin of nanotechnology came about subsequently with the invention of one science’s most important breakthrough in 1931: the electron microscope. Any object was allowed to be magnified at the nanoscale level. Research scientists were now entirely focused on nanoscience.  Using the ‘bottom up’ approach, they were able to build materials, atom by atom, using tiny machines. The first discovery of fullerene bucky ball promoted scientists to create nanotubes changing a material's properties drastically at the nanoscale level when comparing it to its original bulky material. Today, nanoparticles, in the forms of crystalline, sensors and wires are applied in a wide range: filters, wire transistors, resistant materials and used for carrying drugs.

In this nanoscopic level, molecules can be synthesized with great precision to create nanorobotic assembling machines. This nanorobot is a theoretical model within nanotechnology. At the nanoscale, these nanobots will be the most anticipated innovation as they are intended to merge and penetrate into our bloodstreams. Researchers are presently looking into protein’s composition to create bionanorobots to mimic and program its versatile functions. From replenishing our bodies with necessary nutrients, transforming energies, destroying bacteria and viruses, regenerating damaged cells, repairing DNA and to ultimately performing precise surgery, these nanorobots can accomplish all these practices while replacing many procedures for its minimally invasive approach.

Currently, different forms of nanorobot projects are being realised for medical use. For instance, various nanorobots are being developed similarly to blood’s components. As a component of our immune system, certain nanorobots would function like the white blood cell in our defense in the event of invasions of bacteria. In anemic patients, respirocyte nanorobots would fulfill the functions of red blood cells to transport more oxygen throughout the body. Another nanorobot which is being developed is programmed to perform like platelets for the clotting process. Above all, cellular repair and surgical procedures are the most anticipated functions that are being developed into these miniature nanotechnological inventions.  By means of restoring the body and eradicating many complications, these innovations can direct us to the Fountain of Youth that many have tried to seek.

Medical approaches all are based on initial diagnosis in order to get to the root of the problem. Simply said, just one nanorobot, if realized, can detect most illness in one's body by simply injecting it into our blood. The developments of increased nanotechnology and nanobots have been an initiative to several institutions presently.  This research has already stirred up many ethical and safety questions. Alike all the other technological advancements, the fear of introducing and incorporating the unknown endures as a controversy. Just like any technology, this innovation can be abused in the wrong hands. Another worry many have regarding this innovation is whether the nanorobots will react adversely inside our body and transmit diseases. Realizing a nanorobot that will is compatible in our body remains a constant struggle amongst researchers today.

Many have criticized the prospects of various unknown health and environmental risks resulting in the development of these nanorobots. Our standard of living will definitely be altered when this technology is introduced. however, we all question whether or not this innovation will swipe out completely traditional medical practices. Will these miniature machines one day become the root of other complications for our health? What restrictions will be put upon these discoveries to insure our safety? To what extent, will nanotechnology take hold of our lifestyles? The future is unpredictable as it will alone have to answer to all this. The introduction of nanorobots will revolutionize medicine. To some individuals, nanorobotics remains an unattainable science fiction however in today’s world, it is yet to become a reality.

Reference:

"Nanotechnology." Nanotechnology.  Web. 25 July 2013. <http://www.nanotech-now.com>.
"Nanotechnology in Medicine | Nanomedicine." Nanotechnology. Web. 25 July 2013. <http://www.understandingnano.com/medicine.html>.
"Understanding Nanotechnology." NCI Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer.  Web. 26 July 2013. <http://nano.cancer.gov/learn/understanding>.