Development of nanotechnology tools for real-time health care diagnostics

我们的目标是开发用于实时医疗保健诊断的纳米技术工具，以改善骨关节炎和癌症的诊断。基于我和我的团队在过去20年里开发的压痕型原子力显微镜（IT-AFM）技术，我们现在正在采取下一步措施，瞄准与数字化和物联网（IoT）相关的不同健康应用。IT-AFM技术的第一个应用是骨关节炎（OA）药物的开发，以大大减少对膝关节和髋关节植入物的需求。没有OA药物，因为在动物试验和患者中没有灵敏的工具来检测物质对关节软骨的结构修饰作用。一种可以将手术时间推迟一年的药物将是一个巨大的市场。作为第二种应用，IT-AFM技术可用于快速判断肿瘤是恶性还是良性。在这种情况下，在手术室进行肿瘤活检，并将其放入桌面分析工具中。与参考实验室实时交换数字数据，可以快速评估活检是恶性还是良性。IT-AFM技术可以改善癌症诊断和预后，并有助于个性化治疗的发展。医学上的这种进步将节省金钱和时间，并为外科医生提供即时知情的临床决策信息。IT-AFM技术是可扩展的，可以扩展到各种生物医学和技术应用，包括为专门应用开发定制的商业产品。我们开发了it - afm技术，并在三篇具有里程碑意义的论文中发表，其中包括《自然纳米技术》上的一篇文章。我们目前正在评估与当地合作伙伴和全球合作伙伴的不同可能合作，以找到最适合这项工作的合作伙伴。根据合作情况以及与合作伙伴的协议和学生的能力，我们将决定博士生如何最适合我们的团队。

We aim to develop nanotechnology tools for real-time health care diagnostics to improve diagnostics of osteoarthritis and cancer. Based on the indentation type atomic force microscopy (IT-AFM) technology that my team and I developed over the last 20 years, we are now taking the next steps by targeting different health applications with connection to digitization and the Internet of Things (IoT). A first application of the IT-AFM technology is the development of osteoarthritis (OA) drugs to drastically reduce the need of knee and hip joint implants. There are no OA drugs, because there are no sensitive tools to detect the structure-modifying effects of substances in articular cartilage in animal testing and in patients. A drug that could delay the time to surgery by only one year would be a huge market. As a second application the IT-AFM technology may be employed to quickly decide if a tumor is malignant or benign. In such scenario, a tumor biopsy is taken in the operation theatre and placed into the desktop analysis tool. Digital data is exchanged real-time with a reference laboratory that can quickly evaluate if a biopsy is malignant or benign. The IT-AFM technology may improve cancer diagnostics and prognosis and contribute to the development of personalized therapies. Such progress in medicine would save money and time and provide the surgeon with information for instant informed clinical decision making. The IT-AFM technology is scalable and can be expanded to a variety of biomedical and technical applications including the development of custom-made commercial products for specialized applications. We have developed the IT-AFM technology and published it in three landmark papers including an article in Nature Nanotechnology. We are currently evaluating different possible collaborations with our local partners and partners worldwide to find the best match for this work. Depending on the collaboration and in agreement with our partners and the students abilities, we will then how the Ph.D. student best fit our team.