emotee: What the Future Holds

Amazing technology and ideas flood our world. Yet few appreciated and understand.
Our youth.... What interests them?

Imagine using nanoparticles that are able to lodge themselves into cancerous tissues, and then selectively heat up and destroy them without harming normal healthy cells. Or living in civilizations beyond the boundaries of crime and hate.

The Promise of Plasmonics
A technology that squeezes electromagnetic waves into minuscule structures may yield a new generation of superfast computer chips and ultrasensitive molecular detectors
By Harry A. Atwater

Nanoscale Drug Design and Delivery for Improved Cancer Diagnosis and Therapy
http://www.bme.fiu.edu/BME_Faculty_McGoron.htm
Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the US, exceeded only by heart disease. Early detection of small primary tumors is critical for successful therapy and improved survival rates. Chemotherapy is often the first choice for treating many cancers. It is critical that the chemical be sequestered only in the target tissue at toxic concentrations so that nontarget tissue exposure is minimized. However, it is often difficult to ensure that the chemotherapy targets only the cancer and further that the chemical is localizing in the target tissue. Cancer cells easily take up extremely small (nano-sized) particles. New technologies are being developed to allow for the creation of complex nanoscale materials as drug delivery vehicles and sensors. Combining therapy with imaging has the potential to enhance the efficacy of treatment by ensuring and verifying that the drug reaches the target tissue, while minimizing nontarget tissue uptake. Light in the near-infrared (NIR) wavelength can easily pass through tissue and therefore, NIR fluorescent tracers can be used for imaging. Dyes that absorb energy may also release heat following exposure to the appropriate wavelength light and kill cancer cells. With a light sensitive dye incorporated into the drug delivery vehicle, therapy can be targeted since the drug won’t be activated with a laser until the drug has reached its intended target. The long term objective of this study is to develop a methodology of improved diagnosis and treatment of cancer by combining therapy and imaging in the same drug. The study is a collaboration of engineers, chemists, biologists, and clinicians with expertise in drug design, drug delivery modeling, and experimental models of cancer.

Future by Design