Using Nanotechnology to Improve Health in Developing Countries

Millions of people die each year in developing countries from diseases that are preventable and treatable. Moreover, tragically little research is done to prevent or cure some of the world’s biggest killers, such as malaria and tuberculosis.

What if doctors in Kenya could equip cells of the retina with photoswitches that can be flipped on, essentially making blind nerve cells see and restoring light sensitivity in people with degenerative blindness? What if public health workers in Bangladesh could place contaminated water into transparent bottles, which when placed in direct sunlight could disinfect the water and help prevent water-borne diseases like cholera, dysentery or polio?

What if a medical technician in Vietnam could use a tiny "reporter" molecule that attaches itself to specific bacteria or viruses in a patient sample and read with an inexpensive laser device -- no bigger than a briefcase -- whether an infectious disease is present? What if a nurse in Brazil could dispense a gel that would stick to the AIDS virus surface like molecular Velcro and prevent it from attacking healthy cells in sexually active women?

These scenarios are not science fiction. They are just a few examples of the exciting potential of nanomedicine -- an offshoot of nanotechnology which researchers in both industrialized and developing countries hail as enabling the next big breakthroughs in medicine and which they promise to change virtually every facet of health care, disease control and prevention.

Several of the projects being financed by The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s $450 million Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative involve nanotechnology including development of a nanoemulsion-based vaccine delivery system that uses a simple nasal swab rather than an injection.

What is nanotechnology? How is nanotechnology expected to transform medicine and health care in the future? How can nanomedicine help the truly needy in developing countries? And what are the challenges of ensuring that nanotechnology meets the specific health needs of Third World peoples? These questions are the focus of an event and live webcast on Tuesday, February 27th at 12:00 p.m. in the 5th Floor Conference Room of the Woodrow Wilson

International Center for Scholars (www.wilsoncenter.org/directions).

*** Webcast LIVE at http://www.wilsoncenter.org/nano ***

What: Using Nanotechnology to Improve Health Care in Developing Countries
Who: Dr. Andrew Maynard, Chief Science Advisor, Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies; Dr. Piotr Grodzinski, Director, Nanotechnology for Cancer Programs, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health; Dr. Peter A. Singer, Senior Scientist, McLaughlin Rotman Centre, University Health Network, Professor, University of Toronto, and Distinguished Investigator, Canadian Institutes of Health Research; Dr. Jeff Spieler, Chief of Research, Technology & Utilization, Office of Population & Reproductive Health, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Moderator.

When: Tuesday, February 27th, 2007, 12:00 to 2:00 p.m. (Lunch available at 11:30 a.m.)

Where: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 5th Floor Conference Room. 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20004

This event is being organized by the Wilson Center's Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies and Global Health Initiative. The Center's Global Health Initiative provides an important forum to examine critical international health challenges including emerging health technologies and their impact on Third World medical care and economic development.

The Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies was launched in 2005 by the Wilson Center and The Pew Charitable Trusts. It is dedicated to helping business, governments, and the public anticipate and manage the possible health and environmental implications of nanotechnology.
Media planning to cover the event should contact Sharon McCarter at (202) 691-4016 or sharon.mccarter@wilsoncenter.org.

Organiser: Wilson Center's Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies and Global Health Initiative (http://www.wilsoncenter.org/nano)

Contact details
Sharon McCarter
Woodrow Wilson
International Center for Scholar
5th Floor Conference Room 1300
Pennsylvania Avenue
NW Washington, DC 20004
United States
E-mail: sharon.mccarter@wilsoncenter.org
Tel: 001-202-691-4016

Nanotechnologies, ethics and the millennium development goals

As a 2005 The Public Library of Science (PloS) Medicine article outlines, there are a number of nanotechnology fields could benefit the very poorest of nations - for basic needs such as energy generation, storage and conversion, water treatment and disease diagnosis and treatment. The article goes so far as to suggest that the top ten applications of nanotechnology for developing nations could also address the UN’s Millennium Development Goals.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization or UNESCO in their recent 2006 publication titled "The Ethics & Politics of Nanotechnology" present examples of applications:

UNESCO go further and says "....as public awareness of the dangers and possibilities continues to increase, the involvement of all manner of participants will move further ‘upstream’ – into the heart of scientific work itself".

A study undertaken by the Canadian Program on Genomics and Global Health (CPGGH), at the University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics (JCB) during 2005, suggests that nanotechnology applications could help "people in developing countries tackle their most urgent problems - extreme poverty and hunger, child mortality, environmental degradation and diseases such as malaria and HIV/AIDS"

Whilst technology alone cannot solve extreme poverty, it can nevertheless play a vital role. As with all applied research, specific and clearly idenitfed needs will have to be targeted and solutions developed that tackle the real problems and needs.

Imagine for example, one day in the future in a remote village in Africa, a health worker places a drop of a patient's blood on a piece of engineered plastic about the size of a coin: lab-on-a-chip. Within minutes, a full diagnosis is complete including analysis for infectious diseases such as malaria and HIV/AIDS, hormonal imbalances and even specific cancers. Such as a possibility shows that today's emerging point-of-care medical diagnostic technologies are relevant to the needs of the poorest and not just rich nations.

Issues relating to IPR and funding will need to be resolved upfront by the international community - that is by influencial governments, business leaders, scientists and NGOs to help avoid the previous pitfalls and ethical issues that impeded such progress - as we all saw and still see with AIDS treatment for Africa, IPR issues and lack of sufficient funding/resources has caused painful and fatal delays.

Shak Gohir
Business & Programme Manager