KUALA LUMPUR - NANOTECHNOLOGY or nanotech will power the country’s healthcare industry towards a more efficient drug delivery system and cancer treat- ments.

One such example of nanotech-based medical advancement is cancer patients in the future will not have to endure chemotherapy which has various side effects like hair loss, nausea, blood disorders and mouth ulcers.

Instead, cancer patients can opt for a cheaper, faster and less invasive treatment, thanks to the targeted drug delivery approach.

NanoMalaysia Bhd chief executive officer Dr Rezal Khairi Ahmad said cancer-detecting gold nanoparticles with anticancer drugs could be delivered to the exact area of the cancer cells in the body, hence posing no side effects to the patient.

“Nanotech is the next level of technology, and everything that you will be experiencing in the next five or 10 years will be nanotech-based products,” he told the New Straits Times.

Nanotech is the manipulations of materials at a very tiny scale, essentially at the atomic and molecular levels, to custom arrange those atoms so that they will exhibit certain qualities and properties tailor-made to certain applications.

The definition most frequently used by the government and industry involves structures, devices, and systems having novel properties and functions due to the arrangement of their atoms on the one to 100 nanometre scale.

Rezal said nanoscale-sized materials had increased strength and resilience that enhanced the products’ efficiency and flexibility.

Malaysia, he said, had established itself in the field for more than a decade now, in line with the country’s aim to be a developed nation by 2020, with nanotech identified as one of the new growth engines for the New Economic Model (NEM).

Many fields of endeavour contribute to nanotech, including molecular physics, materials science, chemistry, biology, computer science, electrical engineering, and mechanical engineering, Rezal added.

To develop innovative products and nanomedicine experts in Malaysia, he said IBM Research and NanoMalaysia had embarked on a joint research programme to develop nanogel star polymer-based-materials that would ease access to antimicrobial coatings and drug delivery applications.

“Anti-microbial coating will be used as part of a comprehensive infection control programme in hospitals and other public healthcare settings.

“Hospitals have been identified as a medium for spreading infections.

“The anti-microbial application will combat these infections through the development of a cheap nanotech-enhanced polymer coating for rapid and convenient deployment to existing hospital steel touch surfaces.

“Such a coating will be able to reduce the number of microbes on a surface without outside intervention.”

On the other hand, the drug delivery application will be used to address Malaysia’s health problems such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and obesity, all highlighted as an addressable issue in the healthcare initiative under the Global Science and Innovation Advisory Council (GSIAC).

Reports have shown that the drug delivery market size was expected to grow to USD175 billion (RM 565.95 billion) worldwide by 2016.

Source: New Straits Times