• Question: Will nano-bots be able to conquer the entire field of drug development in the future? Do you think programmers and robotics engineers will gain a large amount of influence on the field in the next 5, 10 years?

    Asked by to Amy, Anita, Daryl, Nimesh, Sandra on 17 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Daryl Jones

      Daryl Jones answered on 17 Jun 2014:

      Cool question! And it was good chatting with you this morning! Well I don’t think nano-bots will be able to conquer the whole field, but I think they’ll conquer a part of it! However I don’t think that will happen in the next 5 years, I think we will see more technology within the next 20 years. I’ve seen some really cool ideas, like small robotic flies that can get inside your bloodstream and help fight disease! It sounds like something out of the future! And it is 🙂 we will just have to wait and see! 🙂 hope you enjoyed chatting! It was great.

    • Photo: Anita Thomas

      Anita Thomas answered on 17 Jun 2014:

      Like your line of thought!

      I certainly hope that nanobots don’t “conquer” anything! But I do think that we will use them more and more in our fight against disease. We may use them ato give us warnings of problems, we may use them directly to fight disease (as we used drugs now), we may use them to ‘repair’ any potentially faulty genes. Imagine the future – so many different ones!

      Regarding programmers and robotics, I personally don’t think that they will have much input into drug/nano development over the next 5-10 years. Engineers will, certainly. I think that the programmers/robotics people will be more involved in cyborg-type solutions. I guess that’s why we have things like the robot world-cup. Mind you, having said what I did about programmers, I have to take some of it back. My husband is a programmer, and he is looking into how anaesthetics work (and how memory is laid down) by using quantum computing. But it will take longer than 10 years for this to be commonly used.

      Hope that this helps answer your question,
      Cheers,
      Anita.

    • Photo: Amy Monaghan

      Amy Monaghan answered on 17 Jun 2014:

      Hi Drukendesant

      I think it’s too early to say how soon nanobots will be used in medicine, but I think they will have a role in treating disease in the future, although maybe not all diseases. Actually programmers and engineers and already very heavily involved in drug discovery and I think this will definitely continue to increase. A lot of drug discovery involves mathematical modelling and simulations. Designing new ways to deliver drugs, image disease and carry out things such surgery actually probably make as much money as identifying new compounds and companies are very keen to involve engineers more and more

      Amy

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