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00:00:07;16 , 00:00:10;07 , What if we could screen for thousands of diseases

00:00:10;07 , 00:00:13;18 , all at once…with just a single drop of blood

00:00:16;09 , 00:00:19;02 , What if we could search out and destroy cancer cells

00:00:19;02 , 00:00:22;19 , without surgery or chemotherapy?

00:00:26;24 , 00:00:29;14 , What if we could restore eyesight by injecting

00:00:29;14 , 00:00:31;13 , tiny particles that help the body

00:00:31;13 , 00:00:33;06 , repair injured nerves?

00:00:37;14 , 00:00:39;16 , These scenarios may seem far-fetched

00:00:39;16 , 00:00:41;13 , but they are among the long term goals

00:00:41;13 , 00:00:45;11 , of researchers working in the new field of nanomedicine.

00:00:46;24 , 00:00:49;09 , But what is nanomedicine?

00:00:49;09 , 00:00:51;13 , Nanomedicine is the application of

00:00:51;13 , 00:00:53;23 , nanotechnology to medicine.

00:00:55;03 , 00:00:57;29 , Nanotechnology is the science of the small,

00:00:57;29 , 00:01:00;20 , the science, and now these days, also the

00:01:00;20 , 00:01:03;20 , engineering and applications of very small structures.

00:01:03;20 , 00:01:05;19 , It’s kind of like a giant game of Lego

00:01:05;19 , 00:01:08;01 , only it is very small and the building blocks

00:01:08;01 , 00:01:09;28 , are molecules and atoms.

00:01:10;02 , 00:01:12;02 , If you look in biology

00:01:12;02 , 00:01:13;29 , most of the components of your cells

00:01:13;29 , 00:01:17;16 , and all of your proteins are all nanoscale objects.

00:01:19;09 , 00:01:21;19 , So what doctors need are tiny tools

00:01:21;19 , 00:01:23;14 , that can work with fantastic precision

00:01:23;14 , 00:01:24;28 , at the nanoscale

00:01:24;28 , 00:01:28;12 , the size of the smallest working parts of our bodies

00:01:30;07 , 00:01:32;15 , Nanotechnology has created so many

00:01:32;15 , 00:01:36;23 , materials with really unique and distinctive features.

00:01:36;23 , 00:01:39;17 , It gives us a new toolbox to try and address

00:01:39;17 , 00:01:41;19 , many unmet medical needs.

00:01:41;21 , 00:01:44;13 , How do you bring the drug to the right place?

00:01:44;13 , 00:01:46;19 , How do you avoid the biological barriers?

00:01:46;19 , 00:01:49;25 , These are problems that are very well-suited for a solution

00:01:49;25 , 00:01:52;01 , that is a teamwork solution.

00:01:53;04 , 00:01:55;10 , Hundreds of teams of researchers

00:01:55;10 , 00:01:58;18 , are exploring exciting new ways to better diagnose

00:01:58;18 , 00:02:01;16 , and treat disease through nanomedicine.

00:02:02;05 , 00:02:04;18 , Each new technique will need to go through

00:02:04;18 , 00:02:07;18 , years of testing to ensure that it will work

00:02:07;18 , 00:02:09;05 , and that it will be safe.

00:02:10;06 , 00:02:13;16 , I think that nanomedicine is going to bring us

00:02:13;16 , 00:02:16;03 , a number of really significant breakthroughs

00:02:16;03 , 00:02:17;17 , in the coming years.

00:02:17;17 , 00:02:19;14 , It’s also going to allow us to evolve

00:02:19;14 , 00:02:21;05 , some of the current technologies

00:02:21;05 , 00:02:23;09 , into things that work a little bit better.

00:02:23;09 , 00:02:25;26 , If it is one of many ways, that’s also very exciting

00:02:25;26 , 00:02:29;01 , because the bottom line is that we want people to be well.

Nanotechnology is the understanding and control of matter at the dimension of roughly 1 to 100 nanometers.

A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter. A sheet of paper is about 100,000 nanometers thick; the diameter of DNA is roughly 2.5 nanometers; and a single hydrogen atom is about one-tenth of a nanometer.

What’s so special about the nanoscale domain?

Nanoscale materials have novel physical, chemical, and biological properties. Nanoscale scientists study these properties, and nanoscale engineers use them to develop improved materials, devices, and systems.

What is nanomedicine? Watch a short video

Nanomedicine is the application of nanotechnology to health. Researchers are developing nanoscale tools and devices that can interface with natural biological systems at the molecular and cellular level to aid in the diagnosis and treatment of disease.

About this story

One of the most difficult aspects of cancer diagnosis is determining whether the cancer has begun to spread or ‘metastasize’ from its initial or ‘primary’ tumor site to other areas. The treatment options can be very different depending on the answer to this question.

In this story, Ralph Weissleder and Mukesh Harisinghani tell how they collaborated on the design of a clinical trial to determine if an injection of specially-designed iron-oxide nanoparticles could enhance a diagnostic image produced by an MRI machine to the extent that the spread of cancer could be accurately assessed.

At least in the case of prostate cancer, as Dr. Weissleder tells our producer in this story, “The results were stunning.”

Additional information

This iron-oxide nanoparticle enhanced MRI diagnostic technique is one of many exciting new applications of nano­technology to the detection, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer currently under investigation.

A good website to learn about other research is nano.cancer.gov. The iron-oxide nanoparticle diagnostic system (which also goes by the trade name Combidex®) has not yet been approved for use in the United States.

Other relevant sites:

• Ralph Weissleder
• Mukesh Harisinghani
• Amag Pharmaceuticals

A key aspect of nanomedicine is the extraordinary cross-disciplinary collaborations formed – sometimes almost serendipitously- between researchers in different fields.

We especially liked this story because the researchers (physicist Naomi Halas and bioengineer Jennifer West, both from Rice University) were able to describe to us so delightfully how they came together and hatched an idea that could someday lead to relief for millions of cancer patients. But of course the road from the lab to the cure leads through many twists
and turns…

Additional information

Dr. Halas and Dr. West’s experimental cancer therapy is
only one of many different new nanomedicine-based approaches to cancer treatment currently in the pipeline. A good website to learn about other research is nano.cancer.gov.

Though tested in laboratory animals, gold nanoshell cancer therapy (which goes by the trade name AuroLase™) still needs to undergo a full course of human clinical trials before it can be approved for regular use with cancer patients.

Other relevant sites:

• Halas Nanophotonics Group
• Jennifer West
• Nanospectra Biosciences, Inc.

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00:00:04;28 , 00:00:06;18 , In the first experiment that was performed,

00:00:06;18 , 00:00:07;26 , there were approximately ten mice,

00:00:07;26 , 00:00:09;27 , and all of the mice survived that were treated.

00:00:09;27 , 00:00:11;21 , This experiment consisted of having

00:00:11;21 , 00:00:12;18 , three groups of mice.

00:00:12;18 , 00:00:14;15 , We had one group that was treated

00:00:14;15 , 00:00:15;24 , with nanoshell therapy;

00:00:15;24 , 00:00:18;05 , one group that was completely untreated;

00:00:18;05 , 00:00:20;18 , and a third group that was treated

00:00:20;18 , 00:00:22;21 , in a therapy that looked like

00:00:22;21 , 00:00:25;04 , the nanoshell therapy, except when

00:00:25;04 , 00:00:27;13 , the nanoshell solution was injected,

00:00:27;13 , 00:00:29;14 , they injected just saline solution

00:00:29;14 , 00:00:30;16 , without nanoshells.

00:00:30;16 , 00:00:32;14 , So they went through the whole laser treatment,

00:00:32;14 , 00:00:35;08 , but it was a laser treatment without nanoshells.

00:00:35;08 , 00:00:37;13 , So, of the three treatments,

00:00:37;13 , 00:00:39;18 , only the nanoshell treated mice

00:00:39;18 , 00:00:41;14 , showed a remission of tumors,

00:00:41;14 , 00:00:42;16 , and within two weeks,

00:00:42;16 , 00:00:44;19 , all of the tumors had disappeared,

00:00:44;19 , 00:00:47;00 , and the tumors never reappeared.

00:00:47;03 , 00:00:48;04 , From the time that we did

00:00:48;04 , 00:00:49;06 , the nanoshell treatment,

00:00:49;06 , 00:00:50;12 , within ten days,

00:00:50;12 , 00:00:53;00 , the tumors had completely disappeared,

00:00:53;00 , 00:00:55;21 , and were completely undetectable in the animals.

00:00:55;21 , 00:00:56;29 , Most scientists will tell you

00:00:56;29 , 00:00:59;06 , almost nothing ever works the first time -

00:00:59;06 , 00:01:02;00 , things usually fail – and you spend your time

00:01:02;00 , 00:01:03;25 , trying to figure out why did this go wrong

00:01:03;25 , 00:01:04;25 , and why did that go wrong

00:01:04;25 , 00:01:06;23 , and how can I make this work?

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00:00:00:00 ,00:00:02:09 ,The proliferating colony of cancer cells
00:00:02:09 ,00:00:05:05 ,can form into a compact lump or tumor.
00:00:14:04 ,00:00:16:13 ,In a process called “angiogenesis”
00:00:16:13 ,00:00:19:08 ,cancer cells send out molecular signals
00:00:19:08 ,00:00:20:15 ,to nearby blood vessels
00:00:20:15 ,00:00:23:00 ,coaxing them to grow nearer.
00:00:36:15 ,00:00:39:10 ,The hijacked blood vessels feed the tumor
00:00:39:10 ,00:00:41:10 ,fueling its growth
00:00:47:10 ,00:00:48:16 ,and diverting vital nutrients
00:00:48:16 ,00:00:51:00 ,from surrounding tissues.