/ News
Scientists inch closer to building a drug-delivering nanorobot
Researchers say their proof-of-concept is a major step toward designing a nanocage that carries medicine around the body and targets specific diseased cells.
Scientists have been toying for years with creating tiny implants and nanorobots that could carry drugs to certain diseased cells. It is about as targeted as therapy can get, but at this point it's all a bit futuristic.
Within the confines of petri dishes, researchers are still tinkering. A new study is the first to demonstrate that a nanorobot, which the researchers are calling a DNA nanocage, can both encapsulate and release a biomolecule without degrading the cage itself -- and at a size small enough to keep the drugs trapped until they reach the end target.
The researchers used the body's own natural molecules to design eight unique DNA molecules that, when mixed together, form a nanocage. (See above illustration.)
By changing the temperature in the environment around the nanocage, the researchers were able to open the cage to allow a biomolecule to enter (at higher temperatures the DNA disassociates and is basically more porous) and then close it to trap it (at lower temperatures the DNA elements stick together). They chose to use the active enzyme horseradish peroxidase (HRP) because it is so easy to trace. The findings by researchers from Duke University in the US, Aarhus University in Denmark, and the University of Rome in Italy were published recently in the journal ACS Nano.
At just 15 to 20 nanometers across (1 nanometer being one-billionth of a meter), the tiny cage's cavity is small enough to house biomolecules such as HRP without releasing them prematurely -- which lead author Sissel Juul at Duke says has been the problem with other, larger 3D nanostructures.
"The beauty about working with DNA is that you can design it anyway you want," Juul said in an e-mail. "Say we wanted to encapsulate a smaller drug or bigger enzyme (compared to HRP), it would just be a matter of designing the DNA strands shorter or longer."
Juul added that adjusting the length of the DNA -- and thereby the amounts of hydrogen bonds -- can even allow for manipulating the temperature at which point the nanocage moves from a closed to an open state.
Thanks to this level of control, and the success the team has had in trapping and releasing HRP at very precise points, the researchers are confident that one day nanorobots will be used to transport medicine through the body to targeted cells -- carrying major implications for those battling cancer, diabetes, and so on.
Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57614376-76/scientists-inch-closer-to-building-a-drug-delivering-nanorobot/
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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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