Nanotechnology promises to bring a revolution to the medical sector in both efficiency and cost
Although it sounds like science fiction, the truth is that there has been time investigating robots made from DNA, which will have the mission of ensuring the health of people by accessing places and treating problems that until now were complicated – almost impossible – to try.
This is the case of cancer cells, as explained in Clinic Cloud, which can be located to eliminate them without the need to harm all other nearby cells, as occurs when the most common treatments are carried out such as chemotherapy and radiation therapy.
Can there be a DNA robot?
The answer to this question is yes; DNA robots can be created from the complementary sequences. And is that DNA is not only capable of carrying genetic information, but can also self-assemble, forming more complex structures. This means that the molecules are able to come together to create larger “robots” capable of carrying out missions at the cellular level.
As Dr. Frederic Llordachs explains in the aforementioned Clinic Cloud article, at Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Inspired Engineering Biology they have already succeeded in folding some “strands of synthetic DNA to make a barrel-shaped cage approximately 35 nanometers in diameter. diameter ”, which are capable of carrying antibodies capable of destroying tumor cells. This means that they will have the ability to attack diseases directly, like never before.
An undoubted advance
As can be deduced, the creation of nanorobots will bring great advances in medicine, both in the effectiveness of the treatments and in the costs. On the one hand, it will be possible to bring the drugs to the affected place exactly, so that they fight with the affected cells.
And on the other, that efficiency could lower medical costs, since they focus directly on the evil that affects humans, without the need to opt for complex treatments that can also affect their health.
The key step
One of the key steps that have been taken recently and that could be a definitive boost for the use of nanotechnology has been the ability to build robots somewhat larger than what has been done, so that they are able to carry out more missions. complex.
Like the Harvard institute mentioned above, the UNSW University in Australia has worked on the union of these small robots so that they form larger structures capable of being assembled when scientists want. In this way, when they are necessary, the nanobots can be united, carry out the task for which they have been designed and later separated again so that the organism itself eliminates them.
The future is in the microscopic
Thus, it seems that the future of medicine lies in nanotechnology, that is, in microscopic elements that are capable of traveling through the human body and analyzing cells, being able to perform other tasks such as removing arterial blockages or healing simple wounds. , in addition to optimizing the administration of any pharmaceutical product so that it acts exactly where it is needed.
And that’s not all, nanobots can even be included in skin treatments to cure skin diseases, in oral hygiene and of course, as authentic bastions to safeguard and help the immune system. After all, having a small army of nanobots capable of assembling and disassembling to eliminate any type of disease at the cellular level can be revolutionary.
Fear is the enemy
These technological and medical advances have as their main barrier fear and conspiracy theories that swarm through the networks and which are even echoed by celebrities without any qualms. This is the case of the rumor mill about the coronavirus vaccine and how they want to use it to control all those to whom it is administered…