Nano Comes to Life : How Nanotechnology Is Transforming Medicine and the Future of Biology

This book describes the frontiers of nanotechnology and, in particular, two areas in which nanotechnology is making groundbreaking scientific, intellectual, and industrial impacts: biology and medicine. **The nanotechnology revolution that will transform human health and longevity** __Nano Comes to Life__ opens a window onto the nanoscale—the infinitesimal realm of proteins and DNA where physics and cellular and molecular biology meet—and introduces readers to the rapidly evolving nanotechnologies that are allowing us to manipulate the very building blocks of life. Sonia Contera gives an insider's perspective on this new frontier, revealing how nanotechnology enables a new kind of multidisciplinary science that is poised to give us control over our own biology, our health, and our lives. Drawing on her perspective as one of today's leading researchers in the field, Contera describes the exciting ways in which nanotechnology makes it possible to understand, interact with, and manipulate biology—such as by designing and building artificial structures and even machines at the nanoscale using DNA, proteins, and other biological molecules as materials. In turn, nanotechnology is revolutionizing medicine in ways that will have profound effects on our health and longevity, from nanoscale machines that can target individual cancer cells and deliver drugs more effectively, to nanoantibiotics that can fight resistant bacteria, to the engineering of tissues and organs for research, drug discovery, and transplantation. The future will bring about the continued fusion of nanotechnology with biology, physics, medicine, and cutting-edge fields like robotics and artificial intelligence, ushering us into a new "transmaterial era." As we contemplate the power, advantages, and risks of accessing and manipulating our own biology, Contera offers insight and hope that we may all share in the benefits of this revolutionary research. "Increasingly, scientists are gaining control over matter at the nanometer scale. Spearheaded by physical scientists operating at the interfaces of physics and biology (such as the author herself), advances in nanoscience and technology are transforming how we think about life and treat human health. This is due to a convergence of size. To do medicine, one must understand and be able to reach the nanoscale environment of healthy cells in tissues and organs, as well as other nano-sized building blocks that constitute a living organism, such as proteins and DNA. The ground-breaking advances being made at the frontiers of nanoscience and -technology, specifically in the areas of biology and medicine, are the subject of this short, popular-level book. Chapter 1 describes how nanotechnology and quantitative methods in biology are progressively being deployed to embrace life in all its multiscale, hierarchical intricacy and multiplicity. Chapters 2 through 4 review how bioinspired and bi omimetic nanostructures and nanomachines are being created and integrated into strategies aimed at solving specific medical problems. In particular, Chapter 2 summarizes how scientists are seeking to build artificial nanostructures using both biological molecules and the organizational principles of biology. Chapter 3 gives an account of how nanotechnology is being used to develop drug-delivery strategies that specifically target cancer cells and tumors to improve the efficacy of current cancer chemotherapies. Chapter 4 reviews the science of one of the most potentially transformative scientific fields: tissue engineering. In a concluding chapter (Chapter 5), Contera reviews how nanotechnology, biology, and medicine will continue fusing with other sciences and technologies - incorporating more mathematical and computational modelling, as well as AI and robotics. Nanoscale devices will be used to learn biology; and biology will be used to inspire increasingly sophisticated "transmateria l" devices that mimic some of the characteristics of biology and incorporate new features that are not available in the biological world. The effects on human health and longevity will be profound. In a more personal epilogue, Contera describes the crossroads at which we find ourselves. Accessing our own biology evokes a mixture of possibility and dread. However, Contera maintains that we can create a positive transmaterial world for the benefit of humankind, and she describes ways in which scientists are proactively engaging with the public, politicians, industry, and entrepreneurs, as well as the media and the arts, to communicate the power and risks of new advances and to influence the ways in which new technologies will affect our future"-- Provided by publisher Cover Contents Preface and Acknowledgments Abbreviations INTRODUCTION. Sciences Converge in Biology to Transform Health Nanotechnology in Biology and Medicine The Emergence of Quantitative Biology: The New Physics of Life The Transformation of Biology and Medicine Transmaterial Futures 1. Embracing Biology’s Complexity, At Last Hierarchical Universe, Hierarchical Life Zooming In on Biological Complexity: Reducing Biology to Its Building Blocks Zooming Out: The Emergence of Biological Behavior out of Complexity Using the Tools of Nanotechnology to Investigate Biology Observing the Function of Biomolecules: A Protein Performing Nano-Walks Cellular Behavior on Multiple Scales How Do Whole Cells Respond to Forces and the Mechanical Environment? Translating Mechanics into Biology Bridging Scales with Mechanical and Electrical Signals Bioelectricity Programs Organs’ Activity Hierarchical Biology, Hierarchical Brain . . . and Mind By Embracing Biology’s Complexity, Science Is Closing a Historical Loop of Thousands of Years 2. Learning by Making: DNA and Protein Nanotechnology The Birth of DNA Nanotechnology Making Nanostructures with DNA DNA Origami DNA Nanorobots Scaling Up DNA Nanotechnology Protein Nanotechnology Nanostructures That Optimize Themselves through Biological Evolution Building Biomimetic Materials and Devices with Nanotechnology Future Devices: Quantum Physics Meets Biology Meets Nanotechnology 3. Nano in Medicine A Brief History of Drug Discovery and the Arrival of Nanomedicine Antibiotic Resistance and Nanotechnology Rational Drug Design Using Designer Proteins DNA Nanorobots for Programmable Chemical Synthesis Nanotechnology for Targeted Delivery of Drugs Nanotechnology to Enhance Cancer Immunotherapy Nanoparticles for Gene Editing and Gene Delivery Controlled Release of Drugs and Molecules from Polymeric Materials Controlled Release of Drugs from Skin Patches Using Bioresponsive Materials Implants for Improved Immunotherapies Toward the Super-Enhanced Immune System 4. Recreating Tissues and Organs From the Discovery of Cells to Stem Cells Early Tissue Engineering Artificial Materials to Control the Fate of Stem Cells Nanostructured Materials for Tissue Engineering Engineering Organs 3-D Bioprinting Organs on a Chip Using Biology, Physics, and Mathematics for Engineering and Regenerating Tissues The First Biohybrid, Transmaterial Robot 5. Conclusions: Life Changes Everything EPILOGUE. Biology Becomes Physics: Our Coming of Age as a Technological Species? Scientists Strive for New Technological Cultures Technology and Equality Creating Visions of Positive Technological Futures “Walk Forward in the Radiance of the Past" Notes Index Color Plates "Nano Comes to Life opens a window onto the nanoscale-the infinitesimal realm of proteins and DNA where physics and cellular and molecular biology meet-and introduces readers to the rapidly evolving nanotechnologies that are allowing us to manipulate the very building blocks of life. Sonia Contera gives an insider's perspective on this new frontier, revealing how nanotechnology enables a new kind of multidisciplinary science that is poised to give us control over our own biology, our health, and our lives. Drawing on her perspective as one of today's leading researchers in the field, Contera describes the exciting ways in which nanotechnology makes it possible to understand, interact with, and manipulate biology-such as by designing and building artificial structures and even machines at the nanoscale using DNA, proteins, and other biological molecules as materials. In turn, nanotechnology is revolutionizing medicine in ways that will have profound effects on our health and longevity, from nanoscale machines that can target individual cancer cells and deliver drugs more effectively, to nanoantibiotics that can fight resistant bacteria, to the engineering of tissues and organs for research, drug discovery, and transplantation. The future will bring about the continued fusion of nanotechnology with biology, physics, medicine, and cutting-edge fields like robotics and artificial intelligence, ushering us into a new transmaterial era. As we contemplate the power, advantages, and risks of accessing and manipulating our own biology, Contera offers insight and hope that we may all share in the benefits of this revolutionary research."--Publisher marketing