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Nanotechnology in Life Sciences
The fusion of nanotechnology and medicine is changing healthcare as we know it. Organizations and government entities are investing huge amounts in nanotech R&D; life science technology innovators across the world are delivering new products and technologies that almost seem straight from a sci-fi movie.
Take the "lab-on-a-chip" (LOC) concept, for example. Originally based on technology pursued by the U.S. military for detection of biological and chemical warfare agents, the LOC is now being used to examine DNA strands to identify cancer. Soon, researchers expect to have an LOC capable of rendering a complete diagnostic workup using just a drop of blood of urine.
Researchers at MIT have developed a lab test that can detect the presence of blood clots that lead to heart attacks and stroke. They began by modifying a previously developed injectable nanoparticle test for colorectal cancer. Because blood clots are formed from a protein interaction that requires the enzyme thrombin, the researchers added a thrombin sensor to the nanoparticle.
After the particles are injected into the blood stream, they interact with thrombin causing peptides to be released into the urine. A simple urine dipstick to test for the presence of these specific peptides alerts doctors to the presence of blood clots. The new test has potential applications in emergency medicine by giving doctors a diagnostic tool to quickly identify blood clots, as well as prophylactically in postsurgical patients, who could be given a set of dipsticks to take home after a procedure. Patients could test their urine each day and alert their surgeon if a blood clot forms.
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Nanotechnology could be used to detect blood clots.
Pharmaceutical companies, most notably GlaxoSmithKline, are developing the latest iteration of implanted electroceuticals. Since most of the body's functions are controlled by electrical stimuli, researchers at GSK are pinpointing specific electric pathways and attempting to activate or inhibit certain ones to correct disease. Bioelectric medical devices could be used to control appetite, decrease blood pressure and stimulate insulin production in response to rising blood sugar.
ElectroCore Medical is exploring electroceuticals as a treatment for cluster and migraine headaches. The company's vagal nerve stimulator is also being developed as a treatment for asthma, epilepsy and irritable bowel syndrome. While GSK is blocking efferent signals in the brain with its implantable devices, ElectroCore is targeting afferent signals and its devices are not implanted and therefore avoid invasive insertion procedures.
Nanotubes are being used to reduce dental implant failures by medical researchers at Michigan Technical University and the University of Illinois at Chicago. Implants fail due to infection or separation from the surrounding bone. Using titanium nanotubes loaded with anti-inflammatory and antibiotic agents, researchers found that bone cells grew more vigorously around the implants, and the implants had a much lower rate of rejection and infection.
Expect to see more nanotech advances in the war on cancer in the near future: Researchers in Sweden have just discovered that nanoparticles can overcome drug-resistant breast cancer cells. They hope to use their findings to develop a targeted form of chemotherapy that can be directed to a specific part of a tumor cell to attack the disease while limiting collateral damage and adverse patient reactions.
Source: http://www.azonano.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=3740
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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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