Almost exactly one year ago, two Chinese women earned the distinction of becoming the first humans to be killed by nanotechnology, after nanoparticles in a paint used in their poorly ventilated factory took residence in their lungs, causing respiratory failure. Now a team of researchers at North Carolina State have developed a method of modeling the way nanoparticles interact with biological systems, giving medical and nanotech researchers their first means to predict how a given particle will move through a human body. When nanoparticles enter the body, they almost immediately begin binding with proteins and amino acids, and what molecules the nanoparticles tend to bind to dictates where they will end up in the body. Which molecules they bind to is determined by size and surface characteristics of the particles.
For more, see System for Predicting How Nanoparticles Affect the Human Body Could Save Us from Our Tech by Clay Dillow, August 16, 2010, at Popular Science.
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