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Health See other Health Articles Title: Creating A Medical Nanobot - Multifunctional Wearable Nanodevices For Diagnosis and Therapy Dear Colleagues, how would you like to wear a simple, thin, flexible, transparent patch on your skin that could diagnose your problem, report it, and administer the appropriate dose of appropriate molecular therapy? Personally, I think it would be terrific! There is no place for science fiction in this scenario, because such a nanoplatform has been demonstrated for muscle dysfunction by researchers at Seoul National University and the University of Texas at Austin. Son D, Lee J, Qiao S, et al., Multifunctional Wearable Devices For Diagnosis And Therapy Of Movement Disorders, Nature Nanotechnology, 2014;9:397-404. (5/1/14) These researchers describe the materials, mechanics, and designs for multifunctional, wearable-on-the-skin systems. This platform has overcome the major technical challenges. These challenges include the fabrication of high-performance, energy-efficient sensors and memory modules that are in intimate mechanical contact with flexible soft tissues, such as skin. A further challenge is to couple this platform with the controlled delivery of therapeutic agents. The above challenges have been overcome by the monolithic integration of nanomembranes fabricated with a top-down approach, nanoparticles assembled by bottom-up methods, and stretchable electronics on a tissue-like polymeric substrate. The demonstrated examples include physiological sensors, non-volatile memory, and heat controlled drug-release actuators. The end result is a skin-wearable, bio-integrated system with optimized performance of data storage, diagnostics, and drug delivery. This nanoparticle-integrated system includes low-power-consumption, non-volatile resistance memory devices, together with programmable thermal actuators for controlled transdermal nanoparticle-assisted drug delivery. The system is coupled to well-known stretchable temperature and strain sensors. Figure 1 demonstrates the platform. Porous m-silica nanoparticles with a very large surface for drug adsorption, are used as the drug-containing and drug-delivery vehicle. An electroresistive heater/temperature sensor is the diffusion-accelerating/temperature-monitoring element for the controlled drug delivery. The nanoheater degrades the physical bonding between the nanoparticles and the drug molecules, permitting the transdermal diffusion of the drug. Patients with movement disorders, such as those found in Parkinson's Disease, would be suitable candidates for this platform. The tremors can be measured with a silicon nanomembrane strain sensor. The monitored data can be stored in integrated gold nanoparticle resistive random access memory (RRAM) devices. The pattern of the stored data can be analyzed and categorized into specific disease modes. The corresponding feedback therapy from mesoporous-silica nanoparticles will occur transdermally at optimized rates, using a nanoheater. The skin temperature is kept below 45C by simultaneous nanosensor temperature monitoring during the controlled thermal delivery of the drug. The endurance of the this system is reliable. There is little degradation in over 100 cycles. There is good data retention for up to 1000 sec at ambient temperature. The stretchable memory array can survive both bending and twisting, as well as conforming to the deformation of human skin. Furthermore, there is little data degradation after 1000 stretching cycles. The platform can be placed into phosphate buffered saline (PBS) without significant current variation, indicating that the encapsulation layer is capable of blocking perspiration absorption. The platform is a powerful way to monitor and diagnosis muscular dysfunction and diseases, because it can detect different muscle tremor frequencies. The detected frequencies are stored every 10 sec in separate RRAM memory cells. Software produces written data from the RRAM cells every 0.5 sec, thus allowing physicians to monitor patient health conditions, analyze the tremor patterns, and diagnose the diseases. I look forward to a future of multifunctional wearable devices that will be extremely beneficial for our patients. Thanks, Jim. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
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