Imagine a particle so small it would take a million of them to stretch across the period at the end of this sentence. Imagine such particles could help catch cancer cells floating in your bloodstream before they could metastasize to the liver, bones, brain or other organs.

Or replace the insulin-making cells of your pancreas to cure diabetes.

Or, conversely, attack the linings of your lungs with the lethality of asbestos.

It's the promising, perilous field of nanotechnology -- the creation and manipulation of materials down to the atomic level -- a field the University of Miami is helping to mold. In medicine, science and techology, nanotechnology holds such promise it spurs science fiction-like debates over whether it's more likely to perfect mankind or doom it.

The National Cancer Institute assigns it a daunting role: ``To help eliminate death and suffering from cancer.''

In Miami, two newly arrived molecular pathologists are working on a test to detect cancer in the blood, and they say the test could be in use in three or four years. Drs. Richard Cote and Ram Datar, recently recruited from the University of Southern California, will run a Biomedical Nanoscience Institute being set up at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, giving South Florida a central role in the future of medical nanotechnology.

The two are using the science to build devices that will perform dozens of ``instant biopsy'' tests on a pin-prick of blood and capture tumor cells circulating in the bloodstream.

They don't hide their excitement.

``The integration of nanotechnology and medicine has the potential to revolutionize our approach to human disease,'' said Cote, who will direct the institute and become chair of UM's department of pathology.

``It could be as important as antibiotics,'' said Datar, who will co-direct the institute.

Nanotechnology is based on ``nano,'' the Greek word for dwarf -- a stunning understatement because a nanometer is one-billionth of a meter.

Size matters because at that near-atomic level, materials take on different characteristics from the same materials in the scale we're used to seeing. Carbon becomes nearly weightless and 10 times stronger than steel. Gold melts at room temperature. Crystals of metal oxide shine in vivid, even fluorescent colors.

In medicine, nanotech devices are in clinical trials that would carry medicine directly inside cancer cells, sparing the patient from chemotherapy's nausea and hair loss.

In science, nanotechnology is creating smaller, faster computer chips, more efficient fuel cells for automobiles, contributing to the ``Smart Grid'' that President Barack Obama wants to move power across the country.

In the future, backers say it will build better spaceships for trips to Mars and beyond -- with heat-resistant, self-healing hulls to protect astronauts from the radiation of space.

Its critics say it could create unexpected dangers. Some fear toxicity to human lungs as lethal as that from asbestos. Others fear mini-weapons of mass destruction in the hands of terrorists. Sci-fi novelists have predicted run-amok, self-replicating robots who see humans as their prey.

BREAKTHROUGHS

Cote and Datar bring with them a nano-scale cancer blood test they started developing at USC they say will identify tumor cells floating in the blood from, say, prostate cancer before they can metastasize to the liver, brain or other organ.

Join the discussion

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.repliedToText@

@Nyx.replyAnswerText@

Reply to this Comment @Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@