Nanobots killing cancer - not the future, it's now.

[Kaos]

http://gizmodo.com/5501103/this-is-t...against-cancer This Is the Future of the Fight Against Cancer Look close. You may be staring at the end of cancer. Those tiny black dots are nanobots delivering a lethal blow to a cancerous cell, effectively killing it. The first trial on humans have been a success, with no side-effects: It sneaks in, evades the immune system, delivers the siRNA, and the disassembled components exit out. Those are the words of Mark Davis, head of the research team that created the nanobot anti-cancer army at the California Institute of Technology. According to a study to be published in Nature, Davis' team has discovered a clean, safe way to deliver RNAi sequences to cancerous cells. RNAi (Ribonucleic acid interference) is a technique that attacks specific genes in malign cells, disabling functions inside and killing them. The 70-nanometer attack bots—made with two polymers and a protein that attaches to the cancerous cell's surface—carry a piece of RNA called small-interfering RNA (siRNA), which deactivates the production of a protein, starving the malign cell to death. Once it has delivered its lethal blow, the nanoparticle breaks down into tiny pieces that get eliminated by the body in the urine. The most amazing thing is that you can send as many of these soldiers as you want, and they will keep attaching to the bad guys, killing them left, right, and center, and stopping tumors. According to Davis, "the more [they] put in, the more ends up where they are supposed to be, in tumour cells." While they will have to finish the trials to make sure that there are no side-effects whatsoever, the team is very happy with the successful results and it's excited about what's coming: What's so exciting is that virtually any gene can be targeted now. Every protein now is druggable. My hope is to make tumours melt away while maintaining a high quality of life for the patients. We're moving another step closer to being able to do that now. Hopefully, they will be right. I had no idea they were injecting these critters into people already.

[Exatreides]

Thats amazing. How long before they turn evil

[Kaos]

I was going to label this thread as one of my "Resistance is futile..." posts, but I spared you the nerdiness of that.

[slickwilly13]

I have been telling people for a long time that the cure for cancer would be achieved through nanotech. And I have been looking for some companies to invest in, so I will keeps tabs on this one.

[AcesandEights]

Keep your gray goo out of my apocalyptic predictions, Nanotech!

[Neil]

If this is possible, without it costing silly money, this is epic! I didn't realise they were already doing human trials though? Last I heard it was a few years off!? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7935592.stm

[Danny]

nanobots before functional sentient humanoid robots. man, sic-fi got the order wrong.

[EvilNed]

I was going to label this thread as one of my "Resistance is futile..." posts, but I spared you the nerdiness of that. If it makes you feel better, I was thinking the same thing.

[Danny]

If it makes you feel better, I was thinking the same thing. voyager was the first series that came to mind though, im a bad man.

[bassman]

It's great news that they're making some progress, but the bad news for us is that it will probably never be practical or affordable in our lifetime or our children's...

[Danny]

It's great news that they're making some progress, but the bad news for us is that it will probably never be practical or affordable in our lifetime or our children's... i doubt it dude. 2 years ago no one was using touch screen smart phones, or e readers, or considering electric cars seriously. Were making big leaps in technology faster than we notice sometimes. were just so used to the tv and the telephone we dont notice what we have in our homes is very alien to what we had way back when, but since weve grown up along side it incrementally we dont take major notice. If theres no major side effects, if any, and its less costly than current treatments like chemo, and the costs to take care of a patient after said current treatments i can see this being put out faster than youd think, much faster.

[bassman]

Aye....you have a point there. But even so, there's a big difference between touch screen phones and nanobots being widely used to cure cancer.

[Danny]

Aye....you have a point there. But even so, there's a big difference between touch screen phones and nanobots being widely used to cure cancer. true, but both were sci fi when the matrix was in cinemas at the turn of the century only a decade ago.

[Neil]

While not painting such a 'magic bullet cure', this other article is implying it's promising! http://www.switched.com/2010/03/25/i...-fighting-rna/

[general tbag]

It's great news that they're making some progress, but the bad news for us is that it will probably never be practical or affordable in our lifetime or our children's... moores law, also wouldnt be suprising if military trials also exist,