University of Oregon Gets Grant to Study Nano Safety

The University of Oregon, located in Eugene, was awarded with $1.6 million grant to study the effects of tiny engineered structures on animal tissue. Nano refers to a prefix, 10 to power of -9, which is 1/1 billionth. Usually the term nano is attached to a unit of measurement such as nanometer, which would refer to 1/billionth of a meter. In plain English, nano means: really small. Nanotechnology refers to the engineering of technological devices on the nano scale.

With all that technical jargon out of the way, the grant was given to members of The Safer Nanomaterials group, which is part of Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute, an institute that includes both U of O and OSU.

The study will be using animals for scientific experiments, something I strongly oppose. The study will look for both toxic and therapeutic effects on the zebra fish. One important area of nanoscience is looking at how drugs and other therapeutics can be targeted to very specific areas of the body, leaving other areas unaffected. Success in this area could help improve cancer therapies that now have destructive effects on healthy tissue while destroying cancerous cells.

I attended a nanotechnology conference in Anaheim, California about two years ago, and the possibilities for the betterment of future technology is indescribably exciting. Advancements in military, space, health, and general consumer products are all possible through the capabilities of nano science and technology.