Tackling big problems from a nanoscale perspective

Nanoparticles that allow a transplanted organ to function without the need of immunosuppressant drugs. Nanomaterials that form scaffolds around stem cells, helping them to form new body parts. And nanotech therapy that delivers a killer blow to cancer just as effectively as chemotherapy.

Miracles of medicine that can be accomplished with the help of nanotechnology aren't the stuff of dreams anymore. Scientists worldwide are in the throes of research that could one day bring such advancements to patients, perhaps sooner than expected.

On August 3 and 4, some 95 investigators and scientists from across the University of Miami and other academic institutions got a glimpse of the latest developments and opportunities at the first Biomedical Nanoscience Initiative of the University of Miami (BioNIUM) Retreat. 

During the two-day retreat, dubbed Small Solutions to Big Problems, leading investigators presented and discussed topics that ranged from New Approaches to Cell Capture, Analysis and Biosensing Using Novel Nanotechnology Platforms to Label-Free Cancer Diagnosis Based on Nanowire/Nanotube Biosensors.

"Nanotechnology has the promise to bring technologies that currently are unavailable because of expense-or simply don't exist-to bear on human disease and suffering," said Richard J. Cote, M.D., chair of the Department of Pathology, and director of the new nanoscience initiative. Ram H. Datar, Ph.D., research associate professor of pathology, serves as co-director. "Examples are as far afield as being able to create a way to diagnose cancer at a very early stage using a simple, tiny blood sample to restoring sight in people who are suffering blindness."

While many of the invited scientists who shared their research were from outside the University, several UM investigators also spoke, providing a glimpse of biomedical nanoscience initiatives already under way at the institution.

These included Françisco Raymo, Ph.D., associate professor of chemistry, who is developing electroactive films, fluorescent probes, and photochromic switches for chemical sensing and signal processing applications; Jeffrey Goldberg, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of ophthalmology at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, who is developing novel stem cell and nanotherapeutic approaches for ocular repair; and Vincent Moy, Ph.D., associate professor of physiology and biophysics, who gave a presentation on the application of atomic force microscopy in nanobioscience.

Ozcan Ozdamar, Ph.D., professor and chair of biomedical engineering at UM's College of Engineering, gave a presentation on other biomedical nanoscience endeavors in progress at UM.

Other UM speakers included Executive Vice President and Provost Thomas J. LeBlanc, Ph.D.; Dean Pascal J. Goldschmidt, M.D.; and Bart Chernow, M.D., vice provost for technology advancement and vice president of special programs and resource strategy at the Miller School, who shared with the audience elements he believes are needed for a first-class nanotechnology platform at UM. Among them: expertise in nanomaterials, participation with nanoconsortiums, and the establishment of a relationship between the Biomedical Nanoscience Initiative and the College of Engineering.

Chernow also stressed the importance of the new initiative getting involved in environmental research. "One of the great resources on the face of this Earth is clean water, and it's only going to get more important with time," he said. "More people die of infectious diseases related to impure water than almost anything else on this planet. So the concept that a nanotechnology center would be involved with clean water and clean air and clean energy turns out to be very important in medicine."

Cote, who directed a similar initiative when he was a professor of pathology and urology at the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine, said he envisions the initiative as a junction for scientists from a variety of fields.

"I'm talking about materials engineers, chemists, chemical engineers, and physicists being brought together with molecular biologists, ophthalmologists, pathologists, and oncologists-very far afield, but asking the question, ‘What are my problems, and how can I apply these potential solutions to the fundamental problems that we have in approaching human disease?' What comes out of it are new ideas and new collaborations that, in many cases, lead to groundbreaking discoveries."