Nanotechnology in Surgery

Louizos Alexander LouizosΜSc Nanotechnology & Nanosciences

PhD candidate in NanomechanicsUnder supervision of Prof. Aifantis

Resident in Vascular Surgery Aretaieio n Hospital

What is NanoTech ?Tech for objects in the size scale of < 100 nm

Nanomedicine Nanotechnology in Medicine

“Nature is our playground through a holistic synthetic approach to science”.

Mechanical Properties

Electronic Properties

Biological Material, DNA

synthesis

Electron Microscopy,

AFM

NOVEL MATERIALS THROUGH NOVEL APPROACH TO SCIENCE

Optical Properties

Chemistry & Surface Science

Who is the oldest Nanotechnologist?

Mother Nature has had 4.5 billion years to play with inorganic matter and build nanomachines that prove the feasibility of nanotechnology in medicine

FACT THAT LED TO BIOMIMETIC TECHNOLOGY SECTOR

Visit http://www.Asknature.org for more

Surgery Today

• Surgeons operate in the macro scale.

• The reason for the tissue malfunction is on molecular basis. We promote the self healing of the body so we do not heal

• All surgeons (almost all ) know that the more gentle you are with tissues the less complications

We need lessons from nature on how to heal

gently and elegantly from the bottom up!

Trends in surgery

• We created better tools to assist our hands

• In the dawn of 20th century we begun to be less invasive: Laparoscopic tools , endovascular treatments

• We created robotic hands that are performing better than human hand in some points (less tremor but need to improve on dexterity) : Da Vinci Robotic Surgery

• We are now experimenting with microrobots ( I will show you some of them)

• We will finally move to the nanorobotics technology

SEEMS BIT FRUSTRATING

FOR YOUR TRAINING AS A SURGEON

The only thing that saves us is the time lag between

experimental phase, clinical trials and widespread use of methods

Logarithmic Progress of Surgery Technology

• 3000 BC indications of surgical (mal) practices

• AC

• 1847 Modern Foundations of pain, anesthesia and fight of infection

• 1928 discovery of penicillin

• 1950 first laparoscopic invention

• 1995 endovascular procedures

• 2000 DaVinci robotic laparoscopy

• 2001 Capsule endoscopy

• 2011 Microrobots for medicine already in labs

• 2020 Use of first microrobots in surgery ? We move from surgery to “incisionless” surgery (words of Prof. Lord Darzi, pioneer in keyhole surgery)

• 2040 Radical Change in medicine with Nanotechnology – Biotechnology – and Genetics. Longlivety and Transcendence

Trends of Robots in Surgery

Mag-μbotDa Vinci Robotic Surgery

Endoscopy Capsule

Mag-μRobot (Carnegie Mellon )

Future of Robots in Surgery

Intraoccular Robots Experimental Phase in ETH

Future of Robots in Surgery

Future of Robots in Surgery

A. Forgione, In vivo microrobots for natural orifice transluminal surgery. Current status and future perspectives. Surgical Oncology (2009) 18, 121e129

Nanorobots

When and how?

In about 10-20 years but we do not know how they will be like. We presume them to be like natural nanomechines (e.g. mitochondria)

Freitas Artistic Concept Harvard University ‘s bipedal,

autonomous DNA "walker"

Lab On A Chip

•No need for an angry (why did you awake me up in the middle of the night) microbiologist. •Multiple exams on a small scale machine•Minimal invasive: less blood for the same exams •Can be preventive in nature – Self assessment by patients

Already here and commercial during 2012 from SMARTBIOMEMS EU funded project: Microfluidic lab on a chip system for on site TP53 gene

testing from sample tissue. You will only need a sterilized blender

Nanoparticle Assisted Surgery

• Targeted nanoparticles to specific tumors will provide visual guide for the right tissue removal (not too much, not too little).

• No need for histological tissue exam of the extremities of the oncectomy.

• Gradually moving towards molecular targeting combined with therapy for tumors

Patent application title: NANOPARTICLE TISSUE BASED IDENTIFICATION AND ILLUMINATION. Assignees:  ETHICON ENDO-SURGERY, INC.

The Ideal Grafts

• Enhanced Biocompatibility through Biomimetism of nanotopography (still needing surgery for transplantation, hint: Future surgical specialties will be boosted toward transplantation of every possible human part)

• Artificial Grafts are mistaken for Real Tissue if they look like tissue

• We should still embed “if they function like tissue”

• Future of Grafts Artificial Biomimetic at first and then 3D Printing and Stem Cells

The future may be towards “transcendence” meaning hacking of our physiological evolutionary path

towards an enhanced man – machine hybrid. (possibly in the next 50 years)

Tissue Engineering - Bioprinting

Bioprinting can be defined as computer-aided, automatic, layer-by-layer

deposition, transfer, and patterning of biologically relevant materials.

Pioneer at this field is Antony Atala at W.H. Boyce Professor and Director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and Chair of the Department of Urology at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in North Carolina.

He recently printed an artificial kidney (non functional due to lack of arteries) cell by cell on stage at TED MED 2011

Potential Dangers of Nanomedicine

• D.I.Y. Bio: Biotechnology tools on the hands of ordinary people through the miniturization of devices

• Nanoparticles not yet deeply studied in terms of toxicity and safety. Classic pharmacokinetic rules do not apply due to size and functionalization factors.

• Great Goo-> uncontrolled self replicating nanorobots (The day the earth stood still scenario).

Micro Robot Surgery

Take Home Message• Nanotechnology will play a disruptive role in our future starting to break through around

2020

• The future of surgery is “incisionless” (so keep practicing in your PS3, this is how surgery will look like in the future)

• Big Labs will be replaced with devices not bigger than your cell phone assisting you in surgery.

• Surgery will be assisted optically very soon and then oncectomy will take place in a targeted manner

• Transplantation will be revived very soon through tissue engineering (transplant surgery will be standard training for future surgeons).

• Unavoidably all these will lead to cosmetic and enhancement strategies from patients

Love Nano? Help me Spread the word

• Join me in my blog at http://www.nanotechgalaxy.com, I need help in writing articles. No expertise needed just thirst for knowledge.

• Send me en email at alouisos@gmail.com for more info

• Enroll in the N&N MSc in Thessaloniki.

• Join my Nanotechnology Facebook team at http://on.fb.me/FaceBookNano

• Follow me on twitter at http://twitter.com/louizos

• Get the info I left on this PC or download them at http://bit.ly/nanosurgery

BRACE YOURSELF FOR A BIG NANO FUTURE IN MEDICINE