Emerging Technology and Best Practices Seminar Series

Nanotechnology in Medicine: From Diagnostics to Therapeutics

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Nanotechnology:  A Key Enabler of Personalized Medicine

Linda K. Molnar, Ph.D., Program Officer (Consultant), NCI, Office of the Director

Medical practice is changing at a rapid pace due to the influx of biological information from novel technologies.  Many important medical conditions and risk factors are multigenic or, as a further complication, depend on interactions between gene products and the patterns of their expression and posttranslational modification.  Additional complexity arises based on individual genetic make up as well as environmental cues.  Nanotechnologies are predicted to have a radical impact on how we study, diagnose and treat disease because of their ability interrogate biological interactions on the nanoscale and their ability to handle large, complex sets of data. 

Researchers develop and apply nanotechnology to all aspects of drug development and patient care from streamlining the drug development process through miniaturization, increased sensitivity, high-throughput analysis and automation for target identification and validation; developing quantum dots for in vivo imaging; utilizing contrast and optical imaging agents and ultrasensitive biomarker detection for early detection and diagnosis;  to developing a plethora of multifunctional, targeted drug delivery vehicles for treatment and, eventually, real-time therapeutic monitoring.  For instance, there are already examples of multifunctional nanoparticles that target vascular peptides, growth factor receptors, and transmembrane proteins such as ion channels that are utilized for both cancer and cardiovascular disease recognition.  Because of the incredible sensitivity, flexibility and throughput that nanotechnologies offer combined with the modularity of nanoparticle-based therapeutics, nanotechnology is poised to play a key role in personalized medicine. 

Advances in nanotechnology for cancer therapy are currently being fueled by the works of the National Cancer Institute’s Alliance for Cancer Nanotechnology (nano.cancer.gov).  The over-arching goal of the Alliance initiative is to design and to test nanomaterials and nanodevices and subsequently link them to prospective clinical applications, resulting ultimately in the introduction of novel diagnostic and therapeutic techniques to modulate and overcome cancer processes.