Medicine's Next Big Thing: Nanomedicine
Abstract:
More than half of those diagnosed with cancer undergo chemotherapy. But the drugs that save people often leave them with painful side effects. Now scientists are taking a much smaller, but more powerful approach to targeting the deadly disease.
Valerie Buchanan never thought she'd be one of the 200,000 women every year who get breast cancer.
"I think that we're all aware that it could happen to us, but the reality when it does is a different story," she told Ivanhoe.
Buchanan acted aggressively, having a double mastectomy and chemotherapy. The grueling battle included side effects like nausea, weight gain and exhaustion.
"I guess the scariest part is that what the chemo could do to you," she said.
Chemotherapy drugs kill cancerous cells and healthy ones. Researchers are using nanotechnology to design a better plan of attack.
"Nanotechnology is a way to provide what we call targeted delivery of those drugs," Mauro Ferrari, Ph.D., director of the Center for NanoMedicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, told Ivanhoe.
纳米技术推动医药研究发展
日前，以“肿瘤纳米技术与纳米药物”为主题的香山科学会议，吸引了来自中美两国从事纳米和医学相关研究的领军人物云集北京，80名科学家围绕肿瘤纳米技术、肿瘤纳米药物的分子机理、纳米生物技术、纳米药物的安全性以及纳米医学的发展战略与政策进行了学术交流和热烈讨论。纳米科学的快速进步，为生物医药的发展带来了新的机遇，如何通过发展和利用纳米技术为疾病的预防、检测、早期诊断和治疗提供新的方法和药物，是摆在科学家面前极富挑战的课题。
附注：
香山科学会议可能知道的人比较少。我本科的时候搞过一段时间的复杂系统研究，那个时候提出经济系统可以利用复杂性来研究的方法论观点就是从这个会议提出来的。虽然这个会议在国内的环境下多少还是受到我党政策的影响，但是其规格还是相对而言比较高的，能够决定下一轮我国科学的发展方向。
有兴趣的人可以去下面的网站看啊。
