Featured Article Main Category: Medical Devices / Diagnostics Also Included In: Infectious Diseases / Bacteria / Viruses;Biology / Biochemistry Article Date: 30 Mar 2012 - 12:00 PDT

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This week, at the 243rd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in San Diego, Dr David H Gracias, from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, gave an account of the progress he and his team are making in this area.

Gracias told the press:

"Cargo-carrying bacteria may be an answer to a major roadblock in using nano-medicine to prevent, diagnose and treat disease."

Nano-technology concerns itself with making ultra-tiny devices, small enough to fit a million or so on the head of a pin. In medicine the idea is to use them to transport particles of medication, sensors and other materials to precise locations in the human body.

But it is not easy to devise self-sustaining motors and propulsion mechanisms at this scale: so scientists are increasingly turning to nature, where organisms like bacteria are already of the right scale and capable of moving on their own.

As Gracias explained:

"Currently, it is hard to engineer microparticles or nanoparticles capable of self-propelled motion in well-defined trajectories under biologically relevant conditions."

Continued here:
"Backpacking" Bacteria Ferry Nano-Medicines