Nature Nanotechnology - Asia Pacific and Beyond: topic
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Nano trends in 2008
Ai Lin Chun
Wednesday, 21 November 2007 12:28 UTC
A few people have asked about trends in nanotechnology for both Japan and the world in 2008.
Where are we headed?
What are the hot topics?
1) At Nature Nano at least, I’ve processed a steady flow of papers in targeted drug delivery mainly for cancer treatment, diagnosis or imaging.
If one looks in the literature, there are numerous reports on various ways to use different targeting molecules to deliver drugs, imaging agents etc.
What makes one targeting molecule better than others? Is it time for a paradigm change?
2) There has also been a rise in submissions in nanotoxicology but these have struggled in the review process for various reasons.
Any other predictions/thoughts/opinions/questions? Post them here.
Updated 21 November 2007 12:30 UTC
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Replies
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Personally I envision the trend of nano in 2008 will be focused along these lines:
1. continued development of novel nanoelectronics and nanosensors
2. development of novel nanodevices for better and alternative energy sources, drug delivery vectors, and imaging tags
3. continued debate on nanotoxicity in biological systems, with more theoretical insight appearing
4. new emphasis on the environmental impact of discharged nanomaterials, predominantly experimentalRegarding the struggles of nanotoxicity in getting through top journals, personally I think this comes down to the sensitive issue of good nano vs. bad nano. As scientists and citizens living in this exciting and yet much challenged era our mission is to capture and discover the good science which includes reporting and deciphering both good and bad nano. I understand the mission for the editors is to use their journals as a forum to convey a balanced outlook of current science. A mature science should not fear to have its bad exposed because the good is so much bigger, as I believe is the case with nano. It will take time as it is just part of the process.
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Thanks, Pu-Chun for your thoughtful comments.
I have been personally thinking about these issues recently as well and the philosophy that is shaping up these days is that a bold step would be taken to report also the less than mature/complete pieces of science. After all nanotoxicology in particular and nanotechnology in general is still maturing…and working at the interface of things is not often easy. However, it is also a sense of responsibility to report technically sound science even though at first might be a little premature. A fine balance is indeed necessary.
I also found that referees are often quick to criticise a paper in great lengths but to shape up a particular field, it is probably useful to suggest ways to improve a particular piece of work rather than simply pointing out the flaws.
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Ai Lin, it is encouraging to hear what you just commented. Especially for this nascent field editors hold a greater responsibility of influencing and steering the direction of research.
Regarding paper reviewing personally I am in favor of a double-blind review system where reviewers don’t get to see the authors names and affiliations. Maybe with some creativity a triple-blind system (authors, reviewers, editors don’t see each other’s names) is not impossible to implement.
On another note I am not sure if you are aware that many universities don’t yet have subscriptions to Nature Nanotechnology. That might affect its impact factor for the first couple of years.
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Pu-Chun,
We have a separate thread on peer-review and/or writing a referee report if you like to post your thoughts on the triple-blind system. I’m curious to know your proposal of such a system given all the correspondence between the authors, editors, and referees are by email…Would you expand a little on your vision for next year’s trend in this thread?
What are the sub-topics within the disciplines you suggested that will receive more attention than others?
For example, what are the specific nano approaches for making better alternative energy sources that we will see a growth in?
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Ai Lin, the triple-blind system can be done by creating a fourth party, a server for example (doesn’t need to be a real person), who directs communications between the authors, the editors, and the reviwers. The names and affiliations of the authors may be registered with the server but not shown in the manuscript. Still the reviewers are chosen by the editors and the final decisions are made by the editors.
Since the ultimate goal of science is to serve the society I expect Nano in the coming years, 2008 included, will rise to the biggest challenges we are facing today, i.e., climate and energy. The climate issue may be addressed by investigating the fate of nano in the environment (air, water, etc). Over the past few months we have also witnessed a growing number of program calls from major US funding agencies (NSF, DoE, NIH, EPA) on this topic.
The continued rise of gas prices and the suspected connection between CO2 emission and global warming translates to a pressing need of exploring alternative means to power our civilization. Solar cells harvesting light energy, imaging tags lasting longer being less invasive and less toxic, and much reduced power consumption and size of electronics and greener automobiles, to name a few, will be the main themes of modern science and technology, nanotechnology included, for the years to come.
Maynard et al envisioned in 2006 five grand challenges for safe nanotechnology. Among the five challenges the authors mentioned the need of developing validated models for predicting the fate of nano in biological systems and the environment. Today we are no longer satisfied to know that nanotubes can indeed get into cells and fullerenes can readily accumulate in lipid bilayer to facilitate electron transfer (and may impact photosynthesis), we want to know the fundamental mechanisms involved. I expect such fundamental studies will appear more in top journals like Nature Nano. For these studies we expect to see collaborations between experimentalists and theorists from not only chemistry and materials (the mainstream), but also from physics (biophysics), biology, medical schools, and even social science.
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It looks like that we are converging on a number of important directions and trends for nanotechnology going forward, in 2008 and beyond. I personally believe that nanotechnology needs to deliver some of its major promises in the next 5 years. Here I would like to share my thoughts on several areas of research that are most promising but will require concerted effort for success:
(1) Design and development of multifunctional nanoparticle agents. For cancer and other medical applications, important functions include imaging (single or dual-modality), therapy (single drug or combination of two or more drugs), and targeting (one or more ligands). With each added function, nanoparticles could be designed to have novel properties and applications. For example, binary nanoparticles with two functions could be developed for molecular imaging, targeted therapy, or for simultaneous imaging and therapy. Ternary nanoparticles with three functions could be designed for simultaneous imaging and therapy with targeting, targeted dual-modality imaging, or for targeted dual-drug therapy. Quaternary nanoparticles with four functions can be conceptualized in the future to have the capabilities of tumor targeting, dual-drug therapy and imaging.
(2) Design and development of biocompatible nanoparticles to overcome nonspecific organ uptake and RES scavenging. In fact, there is an urgent need to develop nanoparticles that are able to bypass uptake by the RES, and are able to target tumors by active binding mechanisms. This in vivo delivery barrier might be mitigated or overcome by systematically optimizing the size, shape, and surface chemistry of imaging and therapeutic nanoparticles.
(3) Penetration of imaging and therapeutic nanoparticles into solid tumors beyond the first a few layers of vascular endothelial cells. This task will likely require active pumping mechanisms such as caveollin transcytosis and receptor-mediated endocysosis or cell-based strategies such as nanoparticle-loaded macrophages.
(4) Release of drug payloads inside targeted cells or organs. This task will likely require the development of biodegradable nanoparticle carriers that are responsive to pH, temperature, or enzymatic reactions.
(5) Nanotoxicology studies including nanoparticle distribution, excretion, metabolism, and pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics in in-vivo animal models. These investigations will be very important in the development of nanoparticles for clinical applications in cancer imaging and therapy.
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As a pharmaceutical scientist, I am really impressed by all the progress that has been achieved in the past 10 years in material sciences and nanotechnology. We have seen the emergence of novel nanostructures (polymeric vesicles, quantum dots, carbon nanotubes. drug-conjugated gold nanoparticles, etc.) with potential applications in the biomedical field. Several of these systems have already been evaluated in a preliminary fashion both on in vitro and in vivo models. In 2008, I think we will see how these systems can be tailored to meet specific medical needs. Parameters such as interactions with cells and blood components, control over the release rate at the target site, toxicity and elimination of the nanocarrier, will have to be studied in more details. I also hope that nanoparticulate based drug delivery systems will be evaluated in diseases other than cancers. There are many pathologies (rheumatoid arthritis, GI diseases, etc) and clinical situations (see progress paper on detoxification published Nature Nanotechnology Vol 2, No 11, p. 679 and thread http://network.nature.com/forums/nnano/683) that could benefit from treatment with nanocarriers.
Jean-Christophe Leroux
Canada Research Chair in Drug Delivery
University of Montreal -
I like soft matter. I hope the nano research can include something soft and amorphous, besides those nanocrystaline oxides, selenides, (and tellurides? very toxic). I hope bottom-up methods can be developed in to a stand along (no assistance of top-down method needed) method to construct 3D (and 4D? moving responsively) nano architectures.
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I am a biochemist that is trying to develop targeting moieties for improved drug delivery solutions. Bionanotechnology is an emerging subfield of nanotechnology and I personally think that we will enter an era where smart solutions(based on protein engineering combined with materials science) will advance not only our understanding of the biology but also will benefit more patients during 2008. I also hope that more efforts will be made to examine the toxicity of new materials that are being developed for diagnosis and therapy at the whole organism level. I believe that during 2008 we will see more translational medicines (mainly for cancer therapy) based on targeted drug delivery that will get regulatory approval and will enter routine clinical work. You can find a review paper named “Nanocarriers as an emerging platform for cancer therapy”, Nature nanotechnology, Vol 2(12), 751-760, that detail the arsenal of nanocarriers and targeting molecules that are available for selective tumor targeting and the challenges related to cancer therapy.
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