Nanotech Day!

Heyo World!

Back with another blog, but this time about nanotechnology. In the beginning of our Day 2 we started off a lecture with Nanotechnologies in the Quest for the Invisibly Small by Dr. Vuk Uskokovic. Dr. Vuk Uskokovic is known for his work as a research scientist with extensive and in-depth knowledge in biotechnology and nanotechnology. He talked about an introduction to nanotechnology like definition of different terms of things that are nano, like any material that is as small as or less than 10 to the negative 9 meters long and they would be considered nanomaterials and anything made with those nanomaterials are called nanotechnology. Then after introductions to nanotechnologies we talked more about the applications to the real world and jobs that use nanotechnology. I was so surprised how many languages of science are connected through nanotechnology, especially the agricultural section of science. I’m hoping to see more effects this has on the plants and the agriculture industry to see how we can bring back the world of nature to grow with technology as well.

Going more into the world of nanotechnology comes the rise of nanocarriers for the treatment of different diseases and one family called “3HM” found in rat trials that this could be the next big brain cancer treatment. The stability of this family meets the requirements for effectively delivering therapeutic drugs for a very deadly form of brain cancer called glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). Using different instruments like positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance images (MRI), Dr. Seo and his team works on systematic studies to investigate how the nano carrier size affects the biodistribution in rodents with a GBM Xenograph. Using some lab rats, they experimented on the different kinds of carriers work with treating a rat’s GBM as shown in figure below.

This figure shows the accumulation of liposomes and micelles within GBM in a rat brain. The nanoparticles were injected through the tail vain to slowly work its way up to the brain where the GBM resides.

Although the trec was longer, the 3HM carriers worked the best out of all the trails conducted on the rats. There were little to no deaths using the nanovehicles (3HM) to carry treatment to GBM.

See you all again soon!