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How nanotechnology can trick the body into accepting fake bones
Altering the surface of orthopaedic implants has already helped patients – and nanotech can fight infections too
One of medicine's primary objectives is to trick the body into doing something it doesn't want to do. We try to convince our immune systems to attack cancer cells (our immune systems don't normally attack our own bodies), we try to convince neurons to regrow (another unnatural phenomenon), and we try to convince the body to accept foreign bits, such as someone else's kidney or a fake bone. In order to accomplish this, we try to make parts of our bodies we don't want, such as cancers, look foreign. We try to make foreign bits that we do want, such as orthopaedic implants, look natural. Nanotechnology, as you might have guessed, can help us do just that.
Slippery slopes
At the nanoscale, there aren't many smooth surfaces in our bodies. Cells are covered with bumpy molecules that help them recognise each other and stick together. Between the cells the extracellular matrix – a mesh of proteins, carbohydrates, and other molecules – helps migrating cells find their destination. Smooth, metal hip implants don't look anything like biological surfaces. Many companies now coat bone implants with nanoscale-textured hydroxyapatite, a mineral found in bone. This hydroxyapatite coating tricks the body into incorporating the implant as though it was a real bone.
Encouraging bone growth
Hydroxyapatite coating can make the implants "stickier", but to have a truly successful implant, the surrounding normal bone needs to grow around the implant. Titanium nanotubes, built to resemble the proteins that our bodies use to stick cells together, could encourage this kind of integration. In experimental models they encourage the growth of osteoblasts, the cells that synthesise bone. If osteoblasts grow around the new implant, they could produce new bone all around it. Titanium nanotubes are being developed by a number of groups, and could be used in future dental and orthopaedic implants. Researchers are also trying to embed drugs that encourage bone growth into hydroxyapatite coatings.
Fighting infection
The antimicrobial properties of nanosilver have been discussed in a previous post, and post-operation bacterial infections are a serious and common problem in orthopaedics. Nanosilver is used in bandages and other wound-healing materials, and is being investigated for potential use on the surfaces of orthopaedic implants. One potential problem is that silver nanoparticles also inhibit the growth of osteoblasts, so fighting infection and encouraging bone growth might not be simultaneously achievable with silver. Other, more creative solutions are needed.
Companies such as Amedica coat implants with silicon nitride to simultaneously decrease bacterial growth and encourage the formation of bone. Unlike silver, silicon nitride seems to be able to do both at the same time. This could be because at the nanoscale the silicon nitride is textured in a way that attracts osteoblasts and repels bacteria.
Nanosensors
Thomas Webster is one of medical nanotechnology's pioneers. NanoShield, one of the nine start-up companies that has sprung from Dr Webster's work, is developing a nanosensor that can measure how well an implant is doing. Carbon nanotubes on the implant detect what kind of cells are attached to the implant, and transmit this information through an embedded microchip. Each cell in the body has different electrical properties, and these properties can tell the nanosensor if an osteoblast, an inflammatory cell, or a bacterium is attached. A nanostructured film on the implant could then release drugs, such as antimicrobials or anti-inflammatory molecules, depending on which type of cell is detected by the nanosensor.
Altering the surface of orthopaedic implants with nanotechnology has already improved the kinds of fake bones patients receive today. Further trickery will undoubtedly make them even better, and convince our own bones to grow around the imposter implant.
Source: http://www.theguardian.com/science/small-world/2013/dec/10/nanotechnology-body-fake-bones-orthopaedic-implants
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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