ABSTRACT
Keywords: nanomanufacturing, nanomedical, self-assembly, bottom-up, top-down, autonomous, medical imaging, nanodevice, Vascular Cartographic Scanning Nanodevice (VCSN), Gastrointestinal Micro Scanning Device (GMSD), spatial data acquisition
via biomimetics. Other inspirational sparks may emanate from purely anthropogenic dreamscapes, which reside within the realms of fantasy and science fiction. There is always the chance that completely unexpected serendipitous discovery might arrive from “nowhere” to the utter joy of long toiling recipients who might have been looking for answers for many years in one area, only to have a pivotal insight surprisingly light up when triggered by a completely unrelated event, as if a gift from some parallel universe that has “crossed over.” Incremental inspirational glimmers, and much more rarely, dramatic brilliant bursts thereof may indeed be gleaned through voluminous thoughtful, disciplined, and deliberate experimentation.From whatever quarter such inspiration may appear, it may be suggested that a certain “cognitive stance” might serve as a useful prerequisite to facilitate and breed the flames of inspiration, creativity, and innovation, which may likely percolate into reality. This attitude might encompass in varying degrees, a blend of excitement and prospective adventure, an insatiable childlike curiosity, open mindedness and playfulness, enthusiasm and positiveness, combined with responsibility, integrity; and importantly, persistence, interspersed with a modicum of naivety, and humbleness in the recognition that one can clearly never “know it all.” Hence, the vibrant collaboration of individuals who encompass diverse areas of expertise will be indispensible toward the development of advanced, safe, and efficacious nanomedical devices and systems.In actual terms, the development of innovative nanomedical concepts and designs may consist of the heterogeneous fusion of many of the above elements in combination with, from an engineering perspective, what may be perceived to be practically achieved in a manner that is not cost prohibitive. These considerations may encompass the selection of appropriate materials, as well as the development of optimized techniques that are to be employed for the synthesis of nanoscale components and devices from the “bottom-up” (e.g., utilizing advanced chemistries [1, 2], or via still conceptual, albeit steadily advancing nanomanufacturing technologies [3-5]), or “top-down” strategies that include microelectromechancial systems (MEMs) [6, 7] and nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMs) [8, 9], lithographic
patterning techniques [10, 11] that may achieve features with resolutions from 10 to 100 nm, and nanoscale/molecular imprinting [12-15], stamping [16, 17], and molding [18, 19], which can provide 20-40 nm features. 25.2 Vascular Cartographic Scanning
NanodeviceThe vascular cartographic scanning nanodevice (VCSN) (Fig. 25.1) will be manifest as an advanced autonomous ~1 μm in diameter nanomedical device for in vivo imaging applications, and comprised of integrated modular components that work in conjunction with external “outbody” control infrastructures. A far less complex, albeit still nanocomponent-driven precursor to the VCSN device would be manifest as a much physically larger (~3 mm in diameter) in vivo nanomedical imaging instrument, called the gastrointestinal micro scanning device (GMSD).
