In Focus: Nanotechnology Q and A with Ken Gonsalves

Professor Ken Gonsalves' interests lie in the small details - more specifically, in exploring and creating new technologies that can manipulate materials about 1,000 times smaller than the width of human hair.

Gonsalves is researching the synthesis, characterization and processing of novel polymers for electronic applications and biomaterials at UNC-Charlotte, where he is the Celanese Acetate Distinguished Professor of Polymer Chemistry. His research focuses on activities at the cellular and sub-cellular level.

Gonsalves is also helping to organize the Nanotechnology in Biology and Medicine Conference. The Nov. 4 event will explore nanotechnology’s potential impact on medicine. In this interview, Gonsalves discusses the potential of new nanotechnology-driven medical breakthroughs, increasing the public’s awareness of nanotechnology and which short-term and long-term projects in the field excite him the most.

American physicist Richard Feynman wrote of a world where machines could be built out of molecules. He even dreamed of a billion tiny machines, built with perfect precision, that are easily controllable. The promise of nanotechnology is great, but the release of new products into the marketplace has been slow. Are new medical breakthroughs involving nanotechnology close to fruition?

New medical breakthroughs involving nanotechnology, in my view, are not imminent. Yet the potential is definitely there. For instance, multifunctional nanoscale platforms for detection, delivery, passivation and elimination of disease are highly probable. 3-D structures mimicking intricate nanosystems from nature, are likely with respect to tissues and organs. I do see a near term breakthrough in medical technologies that advance nanoscale in vitro devices for diagnostic testing.

Where do you see nanobiotechnology fitting into the North Carolina bioscience landscape?

North Carolina has a fair number of successful bionanotechnology efforts compared to the national landscape. Hence, these efforts can mesh with more traditional biotechnology in areas such as smart drug design and delivery, biomedical imaging and detection, tissue engineering and prosthetics. Other areas of potential impact are in industries where bionanocomposites and nanomaterials will provide “green” technologies along with renewable resources.

A national commissioned survey by the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies released Sept. 26 revealed the public’s awareness of nanotechnology and it various disciplines is low. Is education through the schools and in the media the best strategies to entice more interest?

The public awareness of nanotechnology will emerge once there is a strong marketplace impact and it becomes more commonplace, i.e., more products based on this technology are out there. The more positive the products and applications, the more appreciation the public will have for nanotechnology. In other words, once nanotechnologies appear more frequently in the marketplace, higher visibility will ensue.

The Biotechnology Center hosted the first Nanobiotechnology conference in 2006. How has the content for the upcoming November conference evolved from the previous one? What is the main theme of the conference this year?

The 2006 conference was “local” in the sense that speakers were from within North Carolina. This time we have speakers from the U.S. and Europe as well as North Carolina. The focus is on nanotechnology and its impact on basic biological sciences as well as medicine.
We therefore have a mix of academic, clinical and industrial speakers. Attendees from out of North Carolina --including South Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee -- have registered.

Anything you would like to add?

“Bionanotechnology” is a very wide term or concept. To me this implies an interdisciplinary approach involving chemists, biologists, physicists, engineers, clinicians for the scientific and technical aspects. However, other perspectives such as ethics, environmental and regulatory aspects also need to be focused on in parallel.