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Nanoparticles are the incredibly tiny building blocks at the forefront of a whole new field of cutting edge research, technology and science.

So it’s a bit of a surprise for some people to find that nano-particles aren’t that new.

“Nanoparticles have been around forever,” says Professor Colin Raston, of UWA’s Centre for Strategic Nano-fabrication .

“Every time a meteorite strikes the atmosphere or there’s a volcanic eruption, huge numbers of nanoparticles are created.”

What is new, though, is the research focusing on the deliberate engineering and manufacture of nanoparticles that could help solve world-wide problems particularly in the three key areas of health, renewable energy and the environment.

The Centre for Strategic Nano-fabrication is involved in research in all three of those fields.

In the area of medicine, the centre is involved with the drug company iCeutica, and is developing more effective ways to deliver drugs into a person’s body so they might directly target the illness.

“For instance, if you could make a nanomaterial that could go to a particular problem area in the body, for example a tumour, and it had information in it and it said ‘OK I’m at the tumour, I’m going to deliver the drug’,” explains Prof Raston.

“That way, the drug is only used at the tumour.

“The consequence of that is you would shut down the side-effects of the drug – and all drugs have side effects.”

Not only that, you’d also reduce the huge amounts of waste that accompanies the manufacture of drugs.

“Every time you buy a kilogram of a drug over the counter, there can  be half a tonne of waste sitting somewhere on the planet that went into making that,” he says.

But even waste can be beneficial in the world of nanotechnology. Last year, the Centre received an ARC industry of $500,000 to work to look at taking the waste from cultured pearls and converting it to nanomaterials for health care and medical products.

Other research being funded includes Prof. Raston and four colleagues being awarded a $500,000 grant to investigate the application of nanoparticles in neuroscience trauma by helping repair nerves.

As well as that, Prof. Raston was awarded a $1.3 million five-year ARC Australian Professorial Fellowship for developing carbon technology at the nano level.

Nanotechnology involves making things at the molecular level and below 100 nanometres – with a nanometre being one billionth, or 1/1,000,000,000th of a metre in size.

Because the field of nanotechnology is so new, there are many unknowns and concerns have been raised about the health effects of introducing such small particles into a person’s body.

Raston says what’s called nano-toxicology is now a rapidly developing field.

He says a dilemma for regulators is that current regulations apply to normal, bulk products.

“If you make the particles small enough, below 100 nanometres you change their properties,” he says.

“It’s a bit of a nonsense to say the same regulations apply to that, they’re different materials.

“The complication is that it depends on the size and the shape, and how they stick together, and what’s sitting on the surface (of the nanoparticles).

“And the combination of all those rapidly approaches infinity.

“So how do you work out the properties of nanoparticles, it’s incredibly difficult.”

Raston says nanotechnology has great potential to solve major issues in health, energy and the environment but safety is a key issue.

“Nanotechnology has the power to address these issues,” he says. “But the question is will we be making engineered nanoparticles and will they have an adverse effect?

“We can’t just say we can’t do nanotechnology because there are too many risks, what’s at stake is survival of the planet.

“There has to be a balance between the two and a responsible approach to looking at the safety of nanoparticles.”