Nanotech

It was (also) the best of times...

Nanotech

http://techway.washtech.com/news/3_1...r/16409-1.html

By year's end, legislation to create a National Nanotechnology Research Program could be on President Bush's desk. The inter-agency effort would support long-term nanoscale research and recruit a new generation of nanotech professionals...

"We're exploring the potential of the future generation of radical aero design," she said. "For instance, is it possible to use carbon nanotubes to create a plane with a sensing but load-bearing structure that can change its wing configuration seamlessly, like a bird does when it flies?"

Though NanoMatrix's initial products won't hit the market for at least three years, Wnek said the technology could lead to the improved delivery of antibiotics and other drugs, better treatments for burns and other skin wounds, and, down the road, even the repair of spinal cord damage and the development of entire organs for transplants.

"We're not going to grow an artificial liver anytime soon," Wnek said from his office in Richmond. "But we're pretty bullish on what this eventually will be able to do. It's the kind of technology that promises the mitigation of some pretty serious medical problems."

"This collagen matrix can be used for every tissue in the body — you name it and we can try to replicate it," explained Bowlin, who will join Simpson to discuss potential uses of electrospinning at another summit breakout session, this one focused on tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.

"Think of what this will mean to pediatric surgery, when babies are born without some pieces and parts," Bowlin said. "And this is tissue that will be accepted by the body and grow with the patients. Surgeons won't have to go back in and make adjustments. It'll be just another part of the body."