At times, it's hard to keep up with the switching of hosts and locations for all of the worthwhile blogs out there. I had not noticed that Nanodot is now hosted by the Foresight Nanotech Institute, for example - a move that makes perfect sense. Two recent posts on the future of nanomedicine should be of interest to advocates and supporters of healthy life extension research:

Time estimates for nano developments 2008-2021:

The 50% median date estimate from "experts and knowledgeable" for sample statements among the 20 tested are as follows:

2008: Nano-agents for analysis inside cells
2013: Nanotools for manipulation inside cells
2015: Self-repairing in artificial systems
2018: In vitro construction of human organs
2021: Nanomachines inside the body

If you're of the view that it takes about ten years to produce a raft of worthwhile, widely commercialized products from a new advance, that timeline looks very Kurzweilian - 2025 for mature technologies to repair any genetic or biomolecular defects we can characterise sufficiently well, and 2035 for blue sky nanomedicine to regrow, enhance and repair whatever faults, diseases and conditions come to mind. To my mind the most important limits to progress are going to result from complexity management - from the time taken to sufficiently understand the biological systems we will be manipulating, and the challenges inherent in organizing, assimilating and using vast amounts of information.

Nanosurgery journal article by Freitas

We envision biocompatible surgical nanorobots that can find and eliminate isolated cancerous cells, remove microvascular obstructions and recondition vascular endothelial cells, perform 'noninvasive' tissue and organ transplants, conduct molecular repairs on traumatized extracellular and intracellular structures, and even exchange new whole chromosomes for old ones inside individual living human cells

If you find Robert Freitas' presentations interesting, you should take a look at a recent interview, an article on the cost of aging and death, and his large body of work on the foundations of advanced nanomedicine.

Technorati tags: nanomedicine

Posted by Reason at January 12, 2006 10:23 PM | TrackBack (0)