Adventures Through Inner Space

During the 1960s there was a science fiction movie called “Fantastic Voyage” where a group of people shrunk down to size and entered a man’s blood stream to try and save his life – working from the inside. Even Disneyland had a ride in Tomorrow Land called “Adventures Through Inner Space” where you ventured into the world of snowflakes, and then slowly shrank, until you were able to venture inside the snowflake’s atom. At the time, these adventures were pure science fiction, but now it is beginning to border on reality. Have you heard the term nanomedicine? Nano is a Greek word for dwarf, which relates to the size of a nanometer (one billionth of a meter). Science is now researching matter in the molecular and atomic scale. It is difficult for our minds to conceive of such tiny matter, but it is true. Since 2005, the Nation Institute for Health (NIH) has been researching and has created eight Nanomedicine Development Centers. At these centers, they are learning the structure of a molecule and its function in the living cell. Interfacing with the affected molecules will open up new areas of medical science. Soon, doctors will be able to treat directly the affected tissues (muscle, nerve or bone) with a minimal amount of invasiveness. Delivery of drugs directly to the affected molecules will assist the medical profession to better treat diseases by going to the source and repairing the molecular structure for the patient. Nanomedicine will also assist in diagnosing and treating various forms of cancer. Direct drug delivery will enable doctors to encapsulate drugs and transport them through the cell wall into the cell cytoplasm (the substance between the cell membrane and the nucleus) so the drug will treat only the diseased area of the cytoplasm. In 1676, with a microscope, Van Leeuwenhoek discovered red blood cells in the human body – now, in the 21st century, man is beginning to explore even deeper into the building blocks of matter – science fiction is becoming fact!