big advances in healthcare?

Nanomedicine and lab on a chip could be the next big things in medicine, here is how..

NANOMEDICINE

Nanomedicine is the medical application of nanotechnology, the technology that operates on the atomic, molecular, or supramolecular scale. For something of such a small size, the potential is huge: nanomedicine has applications in imaging, sensing, diagnosis, and delivery through medical devices.

Researchers are finding new ways to use nanomedicine to target individual cells, and in 2021, that research will be put into action. CytImmune Sciences, a leader in cancer nanomedicine, has recently completed a Phase I trial of using gold nanoparticles to target drug delivery to tumors; BlueWillow Biologics, a biopharmaceutical company, has developed nanotech that fights viruses and bacteria.

A LAB ON A CHIP

If it’s taking too long to get samples to the lab, why not bring the lab to the samples? That was the idea of researchers at Stanford University, who recently developed what they call “a lab on a chip” based on CRISPR enzyme Cas12. About half the size of a credit card, it contains a complex network of channels smaller than the width of a human hair and can deliver a coronavirus test’s results in under 30 minutes.

Researchers say that the test could be modified to detect other infections, too, by recalibrating the CRISPR enzyme for a different genetic marker. As the Covid-19 pandemic taught the world, testing is the first step in combating infectious disease. With a lab on a chip, that testing can be done quickly, safely, cheaply, and more efficiently.