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

by Sonia Contera

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691206448
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	11/16/2021
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	8.00(w) x 5.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

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

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments xi

Abbreviations xiii

Introduction. Sciences Converge in Biology to Transform Health 1

Nanotechnology in Biology and Medicine 4

The Emergence of Quantitative Biology: The New Physics of Life 5

The Transformation of Biology and Medicine 10

Transmaterial Futures 15

1 Embracing Biology's Complexity, At Last 19

Hierarchical Universe, Hierarchical Life 22

Zooming In on Biological Complexity: Reducing Biology to Its Building Blocks 24

Zooming Out: The Emergence of Biological Behavior out of Complexity 28

Using the Tools of Nanotechnology to Investigate Biology 39

Observing the Function of Biomolecules: A Protein Performing Nano-Walks 43

Cellular Behavior on Multiple Scales 46

How Do Whole Cells Respond to Forces and the Mechanical Environment? 49

Translating Mechanics into Biology 51

Bridging Scales with Mechanical and Electrical Signals 57

Bioelectricity Programs Organs' Activity 58

Hierarchical Biology, Hierarchical Brain … and Mind 60

By Embracing Biology's Complexity, Science Is Closing a Historical Loop of Thousands of Years 64

2 Learning by Making: DNA and Protein Nanotechnalogy 67

The Birth of DNA Nanotechnology 69

Making Nanostructures with DNA 73

DNA Origami 76

DNA Nanorobots 77

Scaling Up DNA Nanotechnology 79

Protein Nanotechnology 81

Nanostructures That Optimize Themselves through Biological Evolution 91

Building Biomimetic Materials and Devices with Nanotechnology 92

Future Devices: Quantum Physics Meets Biology Meets Nanotechnology 94

3 Nano in Medicine 97

A Brief History of Drug Discovery and the Arrival of Nanomedicine 98

Antibiotic Resistance and Nanotechnology 104

Rational Drug Design Using Designer Proteins 111

DNA Nanorobots for Programmable Chemical Synthesis 114

Nanotechnology for Targeted Delivery of Drugs 115

Nanotechnology to Enhance Cancer Immunotherapy 121

Nanoparticles for Gene Editing and Gene Delivery 126

Controlled Release of Drugs and Molecules from Polymeric Materials 128

Controlled Release of Drugs from Skin Patches Using Bioresponsive Materials 130

Implants for Improved Immunotherapies 131

Toward the Super-Enhanced Immune System 132

4 Recreating Tissues and Organs 136

From the Discovery of Cells to Stem Cells 138

Early Tissue Engineering 142

Artificial Materials to Control the Fate of Stem Cells 145

Nanostructured Materials for Tissue Engineering 147

Engineering Organs 149

3-D Bioprinting 153

Organs on a Chip 155

Using Biology, Physics, and Mathematics for Engineering and Regenerating Tissues 156

The First Biohybrid, Transmaterial Robot 159

5 Conclusions: Life Changes Everything 161

Epilogue. Biology Becomes Physics: Our Coming of Age as a Technological Species? 171

Scientists Strive for New Technological Cultures 173

Technology and Equality 177

Creating Visions of Positive Technological Futures 182

"Walk Forward in the Radiance of the Past" 185

Notes 189

Index 207

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Your body is built and maintained by molecular nanomachines, and the future of medicine will depend on our ability to work in the nanoscale realm. Nano Comes to Life tells the story of progress and the path forward. The prospects are amazing."—K. Eric Drexler, author of Radical Abundance: How a Revolution in Nanotechnology Will Change Civilization

"While nature has exploited nanoscale phenomena since the first living microorganisms, nanotechnology now permits direct interaction with the machinery of life. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in research at the interface between nanotechnology and biology."—Eric Mazur, Harvard University

"Contera describes various discoveries related to nanotechnology, physics, and biology and details how these breakthroughs have influenced the way humans think about life. The stories she presents are really fascinating."—Petra Rudolf, University of Groningen

Editorial Reviews

"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."

New Scientist

"[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

"[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

"This is a readable although necessarily technical introduction to the way that physics is coming to biology."—-David Lorimer, Paradigm Explorer

From the Publisher

"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."

New Scientist