New developments in nanomedicine

The lecture is part of the Saturday Morning Science series.

By Jaryd Wilson

Published Feb. 27, 2007

Research about really, really small particles was the topic presented Saturday by MU researchers who are discussing new developments in the field of nanomedicine.

Radiology and physics professor Kattesh Katti addressed the latest technology and discoveries about the nanoparticles needed to detect and treat various diseases and disorders.

To give the audience an idea about the size of the nanoparticles, Katti showed that several of the particles could be grouped together to form a grouping the size of a cell.

He said adult humans are on average approximately two billion nanoparticles tall.

Although these particles have the potential to do many things, Katti said scientists must keep them in perspective.

"As scientists, our job is to look within the realm of reality," Katti said.

To understand more about diseases, the MU Office of Research is conducting studies about nanoparticles. Katti is leading the research, funded by the Cancer Nanotechnology Platform, which is part of the National Cancer Institute.

"We can attach several nanoparticles to a cell to understand more about diseases," Katti said. "We target disease cells with nanoparticles and use them to detect age, size and condition of diseases like cancer."

So far, the studies at MU have only been on pigs, but Katti is confident about the success of these studies.

"We like the pigs because their anatomy is very much like humans," Katti said. "If we perfect something in pigs, we are that much closer to being able to perform it on humans."

Once the nanoparticles are inside the body, the body is ready for imaging, which is the process of X-raying it to see if there are diseases in certain organs.

"The idea is to draw blood from the body, inject nanoparticles into the blood, then put the blood back into the body so it is ready for imaging," Katti said.

Katti said most of the nanoparticles used are gold ones because gold is a non-oxidized metal and doesn't lose its metallic properties at the nanoparticle level.

"The gold particles can generate heat through magnetism that can melt cancer cells," Katti said.

Although gold is the most commonly used nanoparticle in Katti's research, there are other metals that can be used.

Katti said the future is bright for nanomedicine study.

"Nanomedicine has the power to deliver and offer accurate and precise results," Katti said.

Katti's presentation was part of the Saturday Morning Science series, which is an hour-long lecture held at 10:30 a.m. every Saturday through April 14.

"They are trying to get all areas of science," professor Silvia Jurisson said in a pod cast at www.syndicate.missouri.edu. "I think it's a really neat program because the public gets to come in and hear it, and you don't have to be a scientist to understand the talk."

The next presentation is by professor Bruce McClure about the origins of tetra pods.