N.R. Scott
United States of America
Summary
Nanotechnology, as a new enabling technology, has the potential to revolutionise agriculture and food systems in the United States of America and throughout the world. Examples of potential applications of nanotechnology in the science and engineering of agriculture and food systems include disease treatment delivery systems, new tools for molecular and cellular biology, the security of agricultural and food systems, new materials for pathogen detection, and protection of the environment. Existing research has clearly demonstrated the feasibility of introducing nanoshells and nanotubes into animal systems to seek out and destroy targeted cells. Nanoparticles smaller than one micron have been used to deliver drugs and genes into cells. Thus, some building blocks do exist in isolation and are expected to be integrated into systems over the next 10 to 15 years. It is reasonable to presume over the next couple of decades that nanobiotechnology industries and unique developments will revolutionise animal health and medicine.
Keywords
Drug delivery – Nanoparticle – Nanoshell – Nanotechnology – Nanotube – Pathogen detection.
(Indonesia University of Education)
Candidate for MIT & Cal-tech Student
Nanobiotechnology is the branch of nanotechnology with biological and biochemical applications or uses. Nanobiotechnology often studies existing elements of nature in order to fabricate new devices.[1]
The term bionanotechnology is often used interchangeably with nanobiotechnology, though a distinction is sometimes drawn between the two. If the two are distinguished, nanobiotechnology usually refers to the use of nanotechnology to further the goals of biotechnology, while bionanotechnology might refer to any overlap between biology and nanotechnology, including the use of biomolecules as part of or as an inspiration for nanotechnological devices.[2]
Nanobiotechnology is that branch of one, which deals with the study and application of biological and biochemical activities from elements of nature to fabricate new devices like biosensors.
Nanobiotechnology is often used to describe the overlapping multidisciplinary activities associated with biosensors - particularly where photonics, chemistry, biology, biophysics nanomedicine and engineering converge. Measurement in biology using for example, waveguide techniques such as dual polarisation interferometry are another example.
Examples
One example of current nanobiotechnological research involves nanospheres coated with fluorescent polymers. Researchers are seeking to design polymers whose fluorescence is quenched when they encounter specific molecules. Different polymers would detect different metabolites. The polymer-coated spheres could become part of new biological assays, and the technology might someday lead to particles that could be introduced into the human body to track down metabolities associated with tumors and other health problems. Nanobiotechnology is relatively new to medical, consumer, and corporate bodies. Another example from a different perspective would be the evaluation and therapy at the nanoscopic level, i.e. the treatment of Nanobacteria (25-200nm sized) as is done by NanoBiotech Pharma.
Antibody-Nanoparticle Computational Modeling
The conjugation of antibodies and nanoparticles with high affinity & specificity through receptor-ligand recognition modes is of paramount importance in the development of vehicles which can be used for diagnosis, treatment of cancer and various other diseases, application of immunodiagnostic nano-biosensors etc. The bio-nanocomplex formed by an artificial nanomaterial (nanoliposomes and nanoparticles) and a biological entity such as an antibody is brought about by the formation of covalent bonds based on their specific chemical and structural properties such as water solubility, biocompatibility, and biodegradability.[3] There is a requirement of a comprehensive understanding of the relationship of the thermodynamic & kinetic aspects of antibody-membrane association, translational, rotational mobilities of membrane bound antibodies, interactions with the diverse cell surface, circulating molecules and various artificial nanomolecules as well as the conformation. These details are of great importance in the development, application of various nanoscale immunodiagnostic devices. The association of antibodies with cell surfaces is a key molecular event in antibody-mediated immune mechanisms such as phagocytosis, antibody mediated immune dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity.[4]
Recently it has been noted that there exists certain natural proteins, antibodies, that can recognize specific nanoparticles . For example, a specific antibody from the mouse immune system can specifically recognize derivatized C60 fullerenes with a binding affinity of about 25 nM.[3] From the studies carried out by Noon et al., it is hypothesized that the fullerene-binding site is formed at the interface of the light and heavy chains lined with a cluster of shape-complementary hydrophobic amino acid residues. As the covalent modifications of the functionalized fullerenes, occupy only a small fraction of the particle surface area, the largely unoccupied surface would be free to interact with the antibody. Therefore, in order to gain in-depth understanding of the detailed interactions of the nps and the antibody, molecular dynamics simulation is carried out using molecular dynamics simulation; the purpose of our theoretical modeling studies is to be able to identify the energetically favorable binding modes.[5]
For the modeling study, the initial coordinates of the antibody can be made available from the Protein Data Bank (PDB).[3][6]
The basic assumptions, as a first approximation, during the modeling study would be that the hydrophilic derivatizations do not play a critical role in the predominantly hydrophobic nanomaterial-antibody interactions and that the electronic structure remains undisturbed during the conjugation. The nanoparticle is docked into a suggested binding site from the previously done literature studies.[3] Polar-hydrogen potential function (PARAM19) and a modified TIP3P water solvent model for the protein is used.[1].
The simulation involves approximately 300 steps of minimization, using the Steepest Descent and the Newton Raphson method. To reduce the necessary simulation time, a highly efficient method for simulating the localized interactions in the active site of a protein, the stochastic boundary molecular dynamics (SBMD) is used. The reference point for partitioning the system in SBMD was chosen to be near the center of the nanomaterials, which is assumed to be a uniform sphere. The complex nano-bio system can be assumed to be separated into spherical reservoir and reaction zones; the latter is further sub-divided into a reaction region and a buffer region. The atoms in the reaction region are propagated by molecular dynamics, whereas those in the buffer region involve Langevin dynamics are retained using harmonic restoring forces.
The Nanobiotechnology Center at Cornell University no longer offers Internships for High School Students and Undergraduates.
If you are an undergraduate and interested in a nano-related REU, please contact http://www.cnf.cornell.edu/cnf5_reuprogram.html
Thank You for your interest in the Nanobiotechnology Center.
Spring 2010
BME 6670 Nanobiotechnology (also AEP/BIOG 6630, MSE 5630)
Spring. 3 credits. Letter grades only. M. L. Shuler.
Upper-level undergraduate and graduate-level course that covers the basics of biology and the principles and practice of microfabrication techniques. Course lectures are largely from guest faculty with expertise in the presented topic areas. The course focuses on applications in biomedical and biological research. A team design project that stresses interdisciplinary communication and problem solving is one of the course requirements. The course meets twice weekly with 75-minute classes. All lectures may be teleconferenced to NBTC associate institutes.
Biomolecular Devices & Analysis
Cell-Surface Interactions
Nanoscale Cell Biology
Sources:
1. Wikipedia
2. http://www.nbtc.cornell.edu/
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar