No nanorobots yet, but will nanomedicine soon be changing our lives?
(Nanowerk News) Bringing together experts from all over Europe and further afield, NANOMED aims to look at all aspects of nanomedicine and provide an objective answer to claims that this rapidly evolving field will change the face of healthcare forever.
Funded by the EU, NANOMED will for the first time look at all aspects - Economic, Patient Attitudes, Regulatory, Ethics and Communication - and enable EU policy makers to properly direct what has already been identified a major area for strategic investment in the new Framework V11 programme.
Chairing the project is Sir John Beringer, who also chaired the groundbreaking UK CST report on nanotechnology: "Even if we don't see the nanorobots of Fantastic Voyage fame for a few years, nanomedicine still has immense short term potential to impact all of our lives. Working at the nanoscale is already leading to new highly targeted medicines, improved imaging and diagnostics of disease and even a new generation of implantable sensors for monitoring your health. Therefore I am delighted the EU recognises the importance of having a strategic approach to its development. In this project I believe we have managed to assemble a team with both the experience and understanding to create what I believe will be a unique report covering all aspects. For example we aim to have the first accurate projections of market size and potential - to date this has been impossible with many companies using nanomedicine, but not describing themselves as such. Discussions on regulatory aspects of nanotechnology are also now reaching the stage where we can make meaningful conclusions as to the need for either extending existing or creating new regulations. A further interesting aspect is that the current economic crisis seems certain increase public interest in policy making and funding priorities and a case will need to made for nanomedicine. The final members of working parties are being recruited and the final report will be presented at the end of the year."
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