Nanomedicine Roadmap Initiative Information Meeting
January 27, 2006, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland
Purpose and Agenda
Background
Nanomedicine refers to highly specific medical intervention, at a
scale of less than about 100 nanometers, where biological molecular
complexes form the basis of systems that provide structure, control,
signaling, homeostasis, and motility in cells. There have been many
advances in both the physical and biological sciences over the past
several years that make nanomedicine research particularly attractive at
this time. For example, new tools are being developed that permit
imaging of structure, high speed measurement of the dynamic behavior of
molecular assemblies, and measurement of forces at the molecular scale.
These advances are complemented, on the biological side, by our
knowledge of the human genome and a greater understanding of the
molecular pathology of some diseases.
Several other research efforts across the NIH in nanotechnology are now under way (http://www.becon.nih.gov/nano.htm).
What distinguishes this Nanomedicine Initiative is its long-term focus
on characterizing cellular processes and nanoscale molecular complexes
and their interactions at a level of precision that has not been
achieved to date. This initiative will exploit and build upon research
in nanotechnology, and apply it to living cells which contain a
multitude of nanoscale structures, such as membrane transporters;
processes, such as self-assembly of protein-nucleic acid complexes; and
nanomachines, such as molecular motors. Well controlled manipulation of
these and other intracellular processes and structures has not yet been
achieved.
This initiative is now possible because biologists have made
stunning progress in describing complex phenomena at the cellular and
subcellular level. However, large gaps remain in our knowledge about
most of the physical characteristics of cellular components such as
their exact quantities and variations, location, timescales,
interactions, affinities, force generation, flexibility and internal
motion. Progress, using analytical models of molecular interactions
already in hand, is stymied by this lack of information. More
comprehensive models describing cellular structures and associations
will be developed by using the knowledge gained from such precise
quantitative physical measurements. To do so, new physical methods,
instruments, and tools must be developed. In addition, computational
tools for data collection, storage, analysis and dissemination must be
refined. In examining the long-term horizon, we expect that the next
level of investigation will identify and define the design principles
and operational parameters of naturally occurring nanostructures and
complexes in cells. This knowledge will lead us to develop strategies
and fabrication methods to build nanostructures, assemblies, and systems
that ultimately will lead to specific control of various individual
cellular components in order to treat disease or repair damaged tissue.
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