Nano Comes to Life: How Nanotechnology Is Transforming Medicine and the Future of Biology

Sonia Contera; Sonia Contera

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Nano Comes to Life

How Nanotechnology Is Transforming Medicine and the Future of Biology

Sonia Contera and Sonia Contera

Language: English

Published/Copyright: 2019

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About this book

The nanotechnology revolution that will transform human health and longevity

Nano Comes to Life opens a window onto the nanoscale—the infinitesimal realm of proteins and DNA where physics and cellular and molecular biology meet—and introduces readers to the rapidly evolving nanotechnologies that are allowing us to manipulate the very building blocks of life. Sonia Contera gives an insider's perspective on this new frontier, revealing how nanotechnology enables a new kind of multidisciplinary science that is poised to give us control over our own biology, our health, and our lives.

Drawing on her perspective as one of today's leading researchers in the field, Contera describes the exciting ways in which nanotechnology makes it possible to understand, interact with, and manipulate biology—such as by designing and building artificial structures and even machines at the nanoscale using DNA, proteins, and other biological molecules as materials. In turn, nanotechnology is revolutionizing medicine in ways that will have profound effects on our health and longevity, from nanoscale machines that can target individual cancer cells and deliver drugs more effectively, to nanoantibiotics that can fight resistant bacteria, to the engineering of tissues and organs for research, drug discovery, and transplantation.

The future will bring about the continued fusion of nanotechnology with biology, physics, medicine, and cutting-edge fields like robotics and artificial intelligence, ushering us into a new "transmaterial era." As we contemplate the power, advantages, and risks of accessing and manipulating our own biology, Contera offers insight and hope that we may all share in the benefits of this revolutionary research.

Author / Editor information

Sonia Contera is professor of biological physics in the Department of Physics at the University of Oxford and one of today’s leading nanotech pioneers. She lives in Oxford, England. Twitter @SONIACONTERA

Reviews

"This is a readable although necessarily technical introduction to the way that physics is coming to biology."---David Lorimer, Paradigm Explorer --- "[A] succinct study . . . Contera frames this near-future transmaterial science, with its focus on human well-being, as an effort allied to social justice even as it probes existential questions of what it means to be human."---Barbara Kiser, Nature --- "[The photographic section] is truly striking with its visual illustration of laying down single atomic designs and smart insulin-releasing patches containing microneedles."---Simon Cocking, Irish Tech News --- "Nano Comes to Life draws on author Sonia Contera’s adventures in molecular-scale engineering to herald the coming of age of nanotechnology, and its promise to re-engineer tissue and transform lives."

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Frontmatter
i

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Contents
vii

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Preface and Acknowledgments
xi

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Abbreviations
xiii

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INTRODUCTION. SCIENCES CONVERGE IN BIOLOGY TO TRANSFORM HEALTH
1
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1. EMBRACING BIOLOGY’S COMPLEXITY, AT LAST
19
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2. LEARNING BY MAKING
67
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3. NANO IN MEDICINE
97
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4. RECREATING TISSUES AND ORGANS
136
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5. CONCLUSIONS
161
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Notes
189
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Index
207

Publishing information

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

eBook published on:

November 18, 2019

eBook ISBN:

9780691189284

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691189284

eBook ISBN: 9780691189284

Keywords for this book

Biology; Protein; Nanotechnology; Technology; Nanostructure; Scientist; Molecule; Tissue engineering; Nanoparticle; Engineering; Stem cell; Extracellular matrix; Nanomedicine; Bacteria; Organism; Materials science; Cell nucleus; Disease; Biotechnology; Biomolecule; Insulin; Polymer; Biologist; Nucleic acid double helix; DNA nanotechnology; Pharmacology; Protein design; Biological system; Physicist; Growth factor; Spatial scale; Drug discovery; Cell biology; The Tumor; Amino acid; Cancer cell; Synthetic biology; Microscope; Endothelium; Immunotherapy; X-ray crystallography; Evolution; Multicellular organism; Collagen; Cell culture; Emerging technologies; Medical research; Pathogen; Designer; Biosensor; Computer simulation; Drug delivery; Genome editing; Cartilage; Robotics; Cell (biology); Nucleic acid; Enzyme; Regenerative medicine; Bioelectromagnetics; Cellular differentiation; Biochemistry; Lecture; Solution; Subatomic particle; Cytoskeleton; Nanomaterials; DNA origami; Glucose oxidase; Chemotherapy

Audience(s) for this book

For an expert adult audience, including professional development and academic research

Nano Comes to Life

Overview

About this book

Author / Editor information

Reviews

Topics

Table of contents

Frontmatter

Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

INTRODUCTION. SCIENCES CONVERGE IN BIOLOGY TO TRANSFORM HEALTH

1. EMBRACING BIOLOGY’S COMPLEXITY, AT LAST

2. LEARNING BY MAKING

3. NANO IN MEDICINE

4. RECREATING TISSUES AND ORGANS

5. CONCLUSIONS

Notes

Index

Bibliographic data