NANOTECHNOLOGY IN OPHTHALMOLOGY

Nanotechnology is set to make a positive impact on many aspects of ophthalmology including drug and gene therapy delivery methods, delegates attending the World Ophthalmology Congress were told at a special session on new technology in ophthalmology. “This is new and exciting technology which allows us to manipulate matter at the smallest scale. We will be able to make technology that looks at harnessing some of the processes in living systems to generate energy to power devices that could be implanted inside bodies and allows us to improve human biological systems at the molecular level,†said Carlo Montemagno PhD in a broad overview of the coming nanotechnology revolution

. Dr Montemagno, Dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Cincinnati, US, defined nanotechnology as involving the creation and use of materials and devices at the size scale of intracellular structures and molecules. He explained that while early nanotechnology was aimed at making particles and targeted vessels for drug delivery, the next evolution in the technology is where the real excitement lies. “We have been doing lots of stuff with technology that seems obvious, making particles and targeted vessels for drug delivery and also small machinery devices that evolve and that are analogous to electronic circuits in terms of the way they are produced and manufactured. However, the real power of the technology is going to the next level of being able to process information and embed metabolism within the machines and material and to move it to a much higher level of functionality,†he said. One possible route to achieving this higher level of functionality has been suggested by Robert H Singer’s research into the reproductive behaviour of yeast cells, said Dr Montemagno. “Yeast cells are very interesting organisms in their own right that reproduce by budding. Only a female yeast cell can bud, and whether it buds or not depends on the presence of a single protein. The problem is how a female yeast cell can produce a male offspring. If she produces the protein during reproduction, she becomes a he, and the budding process does not work any more,†said Dr Montemagno.

For the budding to occur, messenger RNA is produced, put onto carrier molecules, then onto a kinesin onto a microtubule, and then transported down to the budding cell where the protein is actually produced, he explained. “There is a purposeful transport of information, occurring through the stochastic interactions of basically seven molecules. This is a higher order of behaviour that sends information down from the mother cell to her son, emanating only through molecular interactions,†he said. There are a number of prerequisites for the engineering of functional cytometabolic systems that may achieve this higher-level functionality of living molecules, said Dr Montemagno.

“We need to satisfy three criteria for such a system: first of all, couple protein functionality, which then needs to be environmentally stable and can withstand handling, manipulation, transport and storage. Finally, it has to be something on a scale that can be commercialised,†he said. Dr Montemagno predicted that nextgeneration nanomaterials will involve engineered “metabolic†properties incorporating integrated power, amplified sensing, biomechanical synthesis, and information processing.