The treatment of life-threatening diseases could be revolutionised with the help of a new cutting edge research centre opened in Dublin today.
Ireland's first nanoscience institute is part of a new era of discovery producing the next generation of microelectronics and "smart" drugs by changing molecules and atoms.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern unveiled the research institute at Trinity College Dublin which will form part of a global effort to open new avenues of exploration for scientists.
"In terms of the healthcare sector, there's a huge amount of interest in using nanoparticles to create smarter and more intelligent drugs," said Diarmuid O'Brien, Executive Director of the Centre for Research on Adaptive Nanostructures and Nanodevices (CRANN).
"Classic examples would be in cancer treatment and therapy," he said. Nano comes from the Greek word nanos meaning one-billionth part, with a nanometre a billionth of a metre.
Experts have hailed the growth of nano-research worldwide as the advent of a new industrial age, benefiting not only the health care industry but the emergence of new technologies.
By 2015, the global market for nanotech products will hover around three trillion US dollars. Mr O'Brien said nano-research had the potential to dramatically change health care and allow drug companies to invent new medicines revolutionising the treatment of disease.
"At the moment if someone has cancer the treatment would be to do chemotherapy which targets the healthy and the sick cells and what you do is you kill off both with the view you would kill off the sick cells quicker than the healthy cells," said Mr O'Brien.
"You end up with the terribly traumatic treatment where you lose hair and you get sick. "The view with nano-science in the future though would be that you would be able to do target delivery of the drugs just to the sick part of the body, so instead of just exposing the whole part of the body to the poison, you would just expose the sick part of the body to the poison.
"That really would allow a patient to be treated and managed in a much more sensitive and creative way." He said the Crann Institute will include 150 researchers. "The facility that we're opening would be comparable with the best facilities you would see around the world," he said.
"Certainly we'd be of the view that this is the start of a journey and we would look to see that the infrastructure and the scientific equipment and the people that you would need to operate that, that this would all grow over the years." Mr Ahern described the centre as a state of the art facility.
Meanwhile the Taoiseach also opened the world's first science gallery at the university, providing a programme of interactive exhibitions, workshops, events and debate for the public. It will open on February 2nd with Lightwave, a nine-day festival which will explore light in science, technology and art.
Trinity Provost Dr John Hegarty said: "The Science Gallery is a flagship national initiative which will probe major scientific issues through a programme of innovative and interactive exhibitions, workshops, events and debate. "As a vibrant new public science cultural centre, celebrating science, and technology, it will focus on connecting with the 15-25 age group, firing up these young people to develop a passion for science. "