A Study On The Gecko Adhesive System

In 2010, a nanodragster was built at Rice University, which was about 50,000 times thinner than a human hair, shown in Figure 1.2. The structure of this miniscule vehicle has two big rear wheels made of 60 carbon atoms for a strong grip and smaller front wheels made of the compound, p-carborane(American Chemical Society, 2010). Also, the chassis were created with aligned hydrocarbon molecules, phenylene-ethynylene. This specific structure allowed the experimenters to move the nanocar when heated to 200 degrees with a speed of 0.014 millimeters per hour (American Chemical Society, 2010). Currently, this nanomachine is being studied and improved to create more useful nanobots in the medical field.

The use of nano-materials and extreme precision micro-engineering has the potential for great improvement in the world of electronics and information technology by providing smaller, faster, and more powerful computers and this has been at the forefront of the nanotechnology commercialization . Great examples of how nanotechnology is currently being used in these fields are products such as processors, data storage, and memory components made with nano-materials, TVs, monitors and even smartphone screens that use organic light-emitting diodes (OLED), and waterproof electronics such as smartphones due to the application of nano-coatings

Many doctors, physicians, researchers and biotech companies--including the revolutionary Seattle Genetics research facility--are now turning to antibody-assisted cancer treatments and precisely targeted cures instead of treating cancer with a cocktail of chemicals and radiation that generate risky side effects and damage the healthy tissue that patients need to recover. Cancers are among the most frightening and difficult-to-treat illnesses. Ranked as the leading cause of death and disability, cancer is actually an umbrella term that covers many different diseases. Each person faces a unique disease because cancers interact with the body's existing cells, so each case has a

The incredible properties on gecko’s feet are due to nanostructures present on it. It has a series of small ridges called as scansors, containing numerous projections called setae. On the foot of a gecko around half a million of the setae are present. Each seta is approximately 100 μm in length with 5 μm in diameter. Each seta is further subdivided into about a thousand 200 nm-wide projections called spatula. This results in enormous total surface area of the gecko’s feet, which gives enough flexibility to mold itself on any surface.

As I read the article “ Gecko Skin and Spider Silk,” by Time. I learned that many inventions have been inspired by nature. Animals are amazing creatures with many odd features and adaptations. For example, geckos are able to walk upside down. Spiders spin silk that is “used to make bulletproof vests,” (Time 3) and honeybees are able to “sniff out explosives.” (Time 2). Animals have inspired inventors to create useful tools for centuries and are continuing to be a source of inspiration today. Geckos, Box Fish, and Soap Bubbles are three more nature related things that have inspired very useful inventions people use today.

NASA is constantly looking for ways to attach objects in space, for example; solar panels, fuel tanks, insulation blankets. This gecko inspired technology offers a solution to their problems. These new fibrillar microstructures enable attachment and detachment with a relatively low amount of force, a huge contrast from conventional methods. This project, if successful, will help NASA reduce the number of man hours designated minor repairs and maintenance upon the space station. Consequently, this will allow them to designate more time to the study of Earth, life on Mars and other initiatives. Gecko-inspired tissue adhesives made from a biocompatible and biodegradable elastomer can act as a medical adhesive, replacing structured and assisting in the healing of wounds [1]. The project will also give other students at Arizona State University the ability to use the testing chamber for temperature dependent research purposes, for example: testing biomaterials, bio-inspired materials, analysis of topographical patches for drug delivery and the analysis of cell cultures under specific temperature and

Nanobots are invented to solve problems concerning cancer. Uncontrolled mitosis leads to cancer which have higher tendency to happen when mechanism that controls the cell is distrupted. In 2012, according to the World Health Organization, cancer is one of the leading cause of fatal. In Canada, approximately 30% of deaths are caused by cancer and abouy 191,300 new cases of cancer are expected in the year 2014. Annually, 14.1 milllon of new cases were reported while globally, there were 8.2 billion of deaths. Cancer cells need to compete with normal cells to obtain sufficient nutrient and energy for growth. Cancer cells divide out of control and are able to able to spread to other cell, tissue and organ which will result in malfunction and death.

Nanotechnology has immense numbers of avenues and directions that have been created, especially in the treatment of cancer. It is only projected to become a bigger field that’s more accurate as time passes. But is nanotechnology sustainable and though accurate, strong enough to be the best cancer therapy system? Is lung cancer too difficult to treat with nanotechnology due to its metastatic tendency? And is nanotechnology the best direction that we could be following in our quest for the treatment of cancer without damaging other tissues? As we discover more technology and tools, problems pop up as quick as we can solve past ones – toxicological aspects of cancer treatment, cost effectiveness and the like. Can these wonder child molecules created

The device (Fig. 1) utilizes a solid-state nanopore to immobilize an antibody to capture a target cell surface. The antibody with a biotin-end linear space arm is electrically captured by the solid-state nanopore and then attached to the streptavidin across the nanopore, which is too narrow to translocate either streptavidin or antibody. As a CTC passing by the nanopore, the antibody is attached to the cell surface and dragging the streptavidin towards the nanopore, resulting in a deep current blockade. Based on the flow-induced detachment mechanism, the antibody will detach from the CTC, and the current will return to the steady state current. There are multiple nanopores spaced along the microfluidic channel (Fig. 1b). As the target cell moves through the channel, the antibody in each nanopore binds the cell sequentially. Thus, the accurate cell identification is achieved by multi-measurements, which allows a cancer cell to be separated from a normal

While chemotherapy and nanotechnology are both being utilized to treat cancer, they differentiate in the targeting procedure. Chemotherapy is a type of treatment for cancerous cells by cytotoxic drugs. Patients either receive monotherapy or combination therapy. The administration of these drugs can be orally or intravenously depending on the origin of the cancer. These chemotherapeutic agents work by interfering with the cell's genetic material, blocking the beneficial nutrients from the cell, triggering apoptosis and stopping the growth of blood vessels that supply the tumor. As a result, the increasingly divided cells are destroyed which leads to the disintegration of healthy cells alongside the cancer cells. Examples of healthy

Glioma, a destructive type of brain cancer, and other types of brain diseases have been mostly untreatable due to the blood brain barrier (BBB). There have been drugs produced that are effec-tive in treating these diseases, but simply cannot bypass the barrier due to its special properties. It serves to restrict and control the movement of molecules in and out of the brain. In recent years, the use of nanotechnology show promise with their abilities to bypass the BBB to deliver drugs and small molecules into the brain. Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) obtained the most interest, as it has been used in earlier applications, and their ability to be tracked by CT imaging or atomic ab-sorption. By first looking at the size of the nanoparticle, researchers were able to decide which size of nanoparticles would have the most AuNP uptake across the BBB. It was found AuNPs less than 50nm are the most ideal for the amount of delivery within brain cells. A precursor prob-lem of reaching the BBB is the protein corona. It labels AuNPs immediately when it enters the bloodstream for phagocytosis. By adding a hydrophilic surfactant onto these AuNPs, it allows for them to have an increase circulation time in the blood to reach the BBB and into the brain. The option of using adsorptive-mediated transcytosis (AMT) or receptor-mediated transcytosis (RMT) will allow nanoparticles to increase their permability acorss the BBB. By utilizing these techniques, nanoparticles are able to enter the brain with

Lastly, Nanotechnology can help doctors find cancer cells in a patient and they have the opportunity to give early medications to the patients diagnosed with cancer. Currently, doctors can use Nanotechnology to detect the minuscule cancer tumors present in millimeters of saliva and blood. As illustrated in the research done by the Stanford University, “We can now detect just a few cancer-associated molecules or circulating tumor cells in the body in just a few milliliters of blood or saliva, or map the boundaries of a brain tumor within millimeters to assess its response to therapy or to plan a surgery,” Rajiv Gambhir said. “We’ve specially designed nanoparticles that can send back a massively amplified, whopping signal when they bind to cancer cells in the colon, and we’re working on ways to trigger the self-assembly of nanoparticles when they enter a cancer cell. The field has advanced tremendously in the past 10 to 15 years” (Gambhir). Therefore, if doctors can detect cancer tumors or cancer cells in the body, then they can offer required diagnostics and early treatment to the patient before the tumor develops and starts to multiply. As shown above, cancer can be detected when it is at an early stage

Lastly, nanotechnology can help doctors to identify cancer cells in a patient and also they have the opportunity to give early medications to the patients that are diagnosed with cancer cells in their body. Currently, doctors can use nanotechnology to detect the miniscule cancer tumors present in millimeters of saliva and blood. As illustrated in the research done by the Stanford University, “We can now detect just a few cancer-associated molecules or circulating tumor cells in the body in just a few milliliters of blood or saliva, or map the boundaries of a brain tumor within millimeters to assess its response to therapy or to plan a surgery,” Gambhir said. “We’ve specially designed nanoparticles that can send back a massively amplified, whopping signal when they bind to cancer cells in the colon, and we’re working on ways to trigger the self-assembly of nanoparticles when they enter a cancer cell. The field has advanced tremendously in the past 10 to 15 years” (Gambhir). Therefore, if doctors can detect cancer tumors or cancer cells in the body, then they can provide required diagnostics and early treatment to the patient

Nanotechnology is the development of atoms in a certain object. Nanotechnology has become very popular in the past few years. It is a way to rebuild the systems of life. To make systems move faster than ever before. Nanometer is about 10 times the size of an atom. Each of these has a huge effect on a system. Still there are questions out there that keep people wondering how important nanotechnology is to us. Many wonder how will it affect them and if we should continue this research. I myself wondered about nanotechnology. After researching this topic I have learned new and interesting facts to help me understand the entire concept.

“The prefix ‘nano’ stems from the ancient Greek word for ‘dwarf’. In science, it means one billionth (10 to the minus 9) of something, thus a nanometer (nm) is one billionth of a meter, or 0.000000001 meters. A nanometer is about three to five atoms wide, or some 40,000 times smaller than the thickness of human hair. A virus is typically 100 nm in size.” (Paddock) “The ability to manipulate structures and properties at the nanoscale in medicine is like having a sub-microscopic lab bench on which you can handle cell components, viruses or pieces of DNA, using a range of tiny tools, robots and tubes.” (Paddock) There is one type of microscope in the world that has the ability to see things at the nano scale. That microscope is a scanning tunneling microscope. It has the ability to zoom in on an object by 1,000,000 times as the average high school and college microscope only reaches 100(Nano.gov).