Consider the following excerpt from the New Scientist Online:

 

Nanoparticles to pinpoint viruses in body scans

 

10:28 22 August 03

 

An injection of magnetic nanoparticles into your bloodstream could reveal precisely where harmful viruses are lurking.

 

The particles are coated with antibodies to a particular virus, so they will form clumps that should be visible on conventional body scans if that virus is present. The team working on the technology, from the Harvard Medical School's Center for Molecular Imaging Research in Charlestown, Massachusetts, have already managed to detect viruses in body fluids and tissue samples.

 

They hope to be able to detect viruses in patients' bodies within a couple of years. Much of the technology has already been tested in humans, so the scientists are confident that it will be safe.

 

 

Spotting a virus

Scans revealing where virus populations are - HIV, for example, tends to concentrate in the lymph nodes - could help doctors improve treatments. And a scan could reveal whether viruses used in gene therapy to ferry new DNA into patients have actually reached the parts of the body they are intended for - and in sufficient numbers to do any good (Journal of the American Chemical Society, DOI: 10.1021/ ja036409g).

 

Full article: Nanoparticles to pinpoint viruses in body scans

Interesting. Hope they can apply this to stopping diseases.

Interesting, really interesting.

Although it can only pinpoint the virii its still a good advance in medical science.

Will they be able to get it to react differently to different viruses so that not only can they pinpoint the location, but also the type of virus just by the radiation or whatever given off?

I'm not sure... I reckon they will be able to do all of these things in due time.

Edited April 2, 200620 yr by Scathane

Certainly good implcations. In time you could have a scane built into your timepiecee that would alert you as soon as anything was detected and you could go straight to the doctors, which would help solve the problem of illnesses not being discovered until too late.