Originally Published MDDI July 2002

EDITOR'S PAGE

Waiting For Nano: How Long Will Molecular-Scale Devices Remain Science Fiction?

With presidential support and a substantial federal investment, nanotechnology research is racing forward. Is the medical industry keeping pace?

According to Benjamin Wu, deputy undersecretary for technology at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), President Bush expects big things from small devices. "The Bush administration fully recognizes and deeply appreciates the importance of the tiny revolution in science and technology," said Wu, speaking at a nanotechnology open house in June.

Toward that end, the administration's 2003 budget proposed a 17% increase in federal funding for the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI), a program that oversees nanotechnology R&D on a national level. This increase brings the federal investment in nanotechnology to more than $700 million for this year.

The initiative actually dates back to January of 2000, when President Clinton officially endorsed it. Marking the occasion with a speech at Caltech, he said: "Imagine the possibilities: shrinking all the information housed at the Library of Congress into a device the size of a sugar cube; detecting cancerous tumors when they are only a few cells in size."

Such sentiment—that nanotechnology offers almost magical advances in science—is not uncommon. In the medical device industry alone, the promise nanotechnology holds is as varied as it is limitless. But in their enthusiasm for these advances, many of nanotechnology's promoters would have us believe we are on the threshold of nanogreatness.

We have heard this before, however. In our January 1994 issue, this magazine ran an article heralding nanotechnology as an imminent advance in device manufacturing. In the almost ten years that have followed, nanotechnology has gotten bipartisan support at the national level and received considerable funding (the NNI has received average annual increases of 33% since its inception).

Our question is, what has the medical device industry done in that time to take advantage of this windfall? In the words of NIST's Wu, is industry "pursuing this opportunity with passion"?

The answer is complicated. Industry itself is only just beginning to explore products that function on the nanoscale. Universities and research labs, however, are making great strides, and it is from their work that products will eventually stem. This makes sense from a business standpoint. How many companies can devote significant time, money, and resources to a technology that might not yield a saleable product for another 20 years?

Samuel Stupp, chair of the Committee for the Review of the NNI, says in this year's report that the most pressing nanoscience challenge is to develop new forms of collaboration: "New ways will have to be found for the government to encourage industry research and offer long-term support of the industry–university–national laboratory partnerships needed to achieve the required breakthroughs."

The reality is that a significant nano-presence in the marketplace may still be a decade or two off. The development of nanoscale devices is an enormous undertaking, requiring substantial coordination and a multidisciplinary approach. As Stupp points out, realizing "the potential of nanoscale science and technology in advanced medicine will require research at the interface between engineering, the physical sciences, and biology."

Clearly, this is no small task. Such an interface will require sustained collaboration between the public and private sectors, substantial investment, and more than a little patience.

The Editors

Copyright ©2002 Medical Device & Diagnostic Industry