Processing materials on the nanoscale gives them new properties and functions (Shutterstock)
Since his university years at the College of Pharmacy, Dr. Ibrahim El-Sherbiny, the founding director of the Nanoscience Program at Zewail City of Science and Technology in Egypt, has been busy noticing that most of the content of eye drops is lost when used, so the eye only benefits from 3 to 5% of the content at most.
El-Sherbiny was not the first to seek a solution to this problem, as research teams around the world worked to provide practical alternatives to eye drops, such as using therapeutic contact lenses, or gel or granules that dissolve quickly in the eye.
However, the problems that prevented the popularity of these alternatives revived El-Sherbiny’s old interest, until he recently succeeded in finding a solution through nanotechnology.
Nano is the technology in which matter becomes one billionth of a meter, and at this precise size all its traditional properties change, and thus it is possible to use it to create new generations of materials with miraculous qualities that were not present in traditional materials.
The solution presented by El-Sherbiny, and published in the journal “Future Medicine,” gave some fibers miraculous qualities when he produced from them nanogranules loaded with the drug “azithromycin,” known for its use as an antimicrobial agent, and placed them in a patch no larger than “2 millimeters by 3 millimeters,” and about 100 mm thick. Micron.
This patch is attached under the lower eyelid of the eye, to help the mucous material of the eyelid adhere to it, and the fibers made from it allow the medicinal substance to be released slowly into the eye and with a uniform distribution throughout the area.
Although this invention seems simple, it represents an example of the value of “nanotechnology,” which could be the engine that drives the economy of developing countries, as El-Sherbiny says in an interview with “Al Jazeera Net” inside his office in Zewail City.
El-Sherbiny points to a board in front of him filled with summaries of his published research, and says: “Each of these studies based on nanotechnology represents an idea that can be invested to generate economic income worth millions of dollars.”
While El-Sherbini noticed a state of astonishment that appeared clearly on my face, he continued his speech, saying as he opened one of the books that was on his desk: “This page of the book talks about the drug doxorubicin for treating cancer, which had huge problems that were solved when it was produced using nanotechnology and released under a new name.” It is doxin, and the producing company succeeded in achieving profits in the millions, for no other reason than because it developed it, as it did not invent a new medicine.”
Design of the nanofiber patch created by Dr. Ibrahim El-Sherbiny and his research team to treat eye diseases (Future Medicine)
How does nano solve drug problems?
In order to understand what nanotechnology does to develop medicines, El-Sherbiny says: “Medicines are blind substances, as they circulate in the blood circulation and go to the affected and healthy parts. Therefore, there is no medicine without side effects, and some medicines - such as cancer medicines - can have side effects.” Harsh, as was the case with the drug doxorubicin before its development. Pharmaceutical companies tried to treat this problem, but they found that any additives would change the composition of the drug, while in nanotechnology there is no change in the composition. What only happens is that you use it as a delivery tool for the affected part only. ".
El-Sherbiny explains, “The modification occurs by loading the drug into very small, intelligently oriented nanospheres so that they are safe and non-toxic, and reach the affected organ directly. Its arrival is ensured by supplying its outer surface with materials that recognize the receptors in the affected organ. For example, if there are "An infected liver cell is carefully studied and the nanospheres are designed to recognize the receptors on them."
Nanotechnology in the field of medicine in this way could be the most appropriate for the renaissance of poor countries for several reasons that El-Sherbiny explains as follows:
First:
Poor and developing countries can contribute to the innovation of new medicines, such as the innovation of an alternative to eye drops, which we at Zewail City succeeded in producing.
Second:
Nanotechnology does not change the composition of the drug, and therefore there is no need to conduct long-term clinical studies that take at least 12 years to approve any drug developed using it. Rather, it is sufficient to only conduct a limited clinical trial, and the developed drug can be available on the market within a year. Or two years at most.
Third:
Nanotechnology is inexpensive, as converting a material from the traditional form to nano does not require huge sums of money.
Fourth:
Poor countries do not have huge investments that would make them invest in a new drug whose clinical trials cost a billion dollars, but these countries can invest in developing three or four drugs available on the market using nanotechnology that will generate millions of dollars.
New membranes for water desalination prepared using nanotechnology (Nature Nano Technology)
Transdisciplinary technology
Drug production is one of the important areas in which nanotechnology can play a leading role, but this “cross-disciplinary” technology is involved in many fields, which has contributed to raising the size of its market to 79.14 billion US dollars in 2023, and it is expected to reach 248.56 billion. dollars by 2030.
The rapid expansion of the nanotechnology market is due in part to increased global investment in research and development, which is creating many innovative industrial applications.
While developed countries transform the outputs of their research in this field into products, developing and poor countries either carry out research that is not applied, or they do not have the infrastructure that helps carry out research in the first place, even though this technology - as is the case in the field of medicine - It can solve many of the crises of poor countries.
Professor of Water Resources at the Faculty of Agriculture, Assiut University, Egypt, Mohamed Ghanem, said in a telephone interview with Al Jazeera Net: “If we take, for example, the water crisis, then according to the World Water Council, between 2.7 and 3.2 billion people may live in conditions of water scarcity or water stress by “The year is 2025, and here nanotechnology can play a role in confronting this problem.”
He explains that the areas of active research in this field are “the development of new nanomaterials with a selective ability for heavy metals and other pollutants. There are also membranes for water desalination that can be prepared using nanotechnology, and new and enhanced sensors to detect biological and chemical pollutants at very low concentration levels in the environment, including In that water."
As the important role of nanotechnology in the field of agriculture shows, there is a need to enhance agricultural production to meet global challenges such as population growth, climate change, and the limited availability of important plant nutrients such as phosphorus and potassium.
One of the tools for increasing agricultural production is enhancing the effectiveness of agricultural fertilizers, and here comes the role of nanotechnology, which can help in using a smaller amount of fertilizers more effectively. Dr. Ibrahim El-Sherbiny’s team in Zewail City, Egypt, had pioneering experience in this field.
El-Sherbiny says, “Because of the rapid dissolution of urea in water, this causes a huge waste estimated at 50% of the volume of fertilizer applied, and the farmer is forced to use fertilizer more than once during the season, but we addressed this problem with a type developed using nanotechnology.”
The new fertilizer is coated with nanoscale materials that are biodegradable and harmless to the soil, which helps the fertilizer to be released slowly into the ground for long periods of up to several months.”
Producing urea fertilizer with nanotechnology helps maximize its benefit and reduce waste (Shutterstock)
Nano and energy...advantages that go beyond environmental goals
Energy generation, distribution, storage and conversion using nanotechnology is an area where much research and application development is being conducted in laboratories around the world.
Nano-technology energy applications can not only provide environmental solutions by providing a path to a sustainable future, but more importantly, they will provide access to energy itself, and this is extremely important, as global energy forecasts indicate that the Sub-Saharan Africa region (the most The poorest on the continent), in 2023, it constituted about 80% of the global total number of people who do not have access to electricity.
Photovoltaics (the cheapest and most efficient solar panels) are a key area of treatment for this problem.
In this context, many solutions emerge from Arab research centers, including the solution that emerged from Mohammed V University in Rabat, Morocco, through a research team headed by researcher Abdel-Ilah Benyoucef, which succeeded in developing graphene using nanotechnology, to make it suitable for use in solar cells. This helps improve its energy production yield by transforming the conductive physical nature of graphene into a semi-conductive physical nature, by grafting it with silicon atoms prepared using nanotechnology.
A research team from the American University in Cairo also had a pioneering experience in developing another type of energy using nanotechnology, which is “biogas energy.” The research team, led by Najeh Allam, professor of materials engineering at the university, came up with a mixture of nanometer materials that includes nickel and iron to stimulate the reaction process. To produce more methane, which is the main component of natural gas, and reduce the percentage of carbon dioxide, thus addressing one of the most important problems of biogas, which is the high percentage of carbon dioxide in its components, which leads to flame instability.
Nanotechnology crosses all disciplines, including medicine, agriculture, water desalination, and energy (Shutterstock)
Countries that are experiencing empowerment
These experiments, regardless of their level of success, appear to be just scattered stories that do not reveal the existence of a long or short-term plan aimed at maximizing the benefit of a technology that can solve the problems of poor countries, as well as that it can generate income for them.
Such stories can be described as “an attempt to show interest in technology,” but they have not yet reached the stage of empowerment that developed countries are experiencing, and which some developing countries are trying to catch up with.
According to a study published by the journal Nanoscale Research Letters, the most prominent countries that are experiencing the enabling stage of technology are America, Japan, China, the European Union, and Russia, each of which had a success story that can be summarized as follows:
America:
Launched in 2001, the National Nanotechnology Initiative is the first federal government effort to fall under the supervision of the National Science and Technology Council, and coordinates the nanotechnology activities of more than 25 federal agencies, 15 of which have specific nanotechnology budgets.
The United States invested about $15.6 billion in nanotechnology from 2001 to 2012, and its budget estimates for the fiscal year 2013 amounted to about $1.767 billion.
The United States has well-established industries investing heavily in nanotechnology, and the economic impact is growing rapidly with approximately 100 companies in every region of the United States focusing on nanoelectronics, semiconductors, and pharmaceuticals.
Japan:
Japan launched its strategic basic research program in the field of nanotechnology in 1995 with the participation of various ministries, led by the Ministry of Science and Technology. Its launch was based on a five-year plan called the basic plan, which is relaunched every 5 years.
In the second and third plans, priority research areas were chosen, namely the production of electronics, nano-devices and nano-biomaterials.
In 2011, about 300 public and private institutions and more than 1,200 researchers participated in nanotechnology activities.
Japan spent about 263.3 billion yen (2.37 billion euros) on nanotechnology research in 2011.
China:
National nanotechnology programs have existed in China since 1990.
In 2011, China had an estimated budget for nanotechnology research of about 1.8 billion euros.
It developed its twelfth five-year plan (2011-2015), which was classified as the most comprehensive plan anywhere in the world. It was a practical goal to shift from basic research to applied research, and more than 1,000 companies participated in it, most of which were small and medium-sized local companies.
European Union:
– 8 European Union countries are actively involved in nanotechnology activities at their national levels, including Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands and Finland.
Funding for nanotechnology in Germany, for example, amounts to about 500 million euros annually, with more than 750 companies and more than 1,000 researchers.
France's budget is about 400 million euros annually, with about 130 companies and more than 700 researchers in the field of nanobiotechnology.
The United Kingdom invests about 250 million euros annually with about 200 companies working in the field of nanotechnology, focusing on nanobiotechnology, nanomedicine, nanoenergy, and nanomaterials.
Other countries’ investments in Europe amount to about 100 million euros annually, with well-designed goals to achieve their interests and maintain global competitiveness and sustainability.
Russia:
Since 2006, Russia has launched its nanotechnology activities with crowdfunding from various government agencies with the Federal Agency for Science and Innovation as the executive body.
Russia has two main bodies in charge of comprehensive nanotechnology activities, namely the Russian Nanotechnology Corporation, as an agency responsible for commercializing nanoproducts and innovations that aims to create several nanotechnology industries by 2015, and there is another agency, the National Nanotechnology Network, which is a body in charge of Coordinating the activities of more than 480 research and development institutions and about 1,700 researchers.
– Russia's focus on using cluster manufacturing approaches is on the production of nanomaterials, nanomedicine, nanophotonics and nanoelectronics for ICT.
The Sri Lanka Institute of Nanotechnology embodies the political will to invest in this field (Sri Lanka Institute of Nanotechnology)
9 countries are trying to catch up
Other countries are trying to catch up with the empowerment train, including:
Brazil:
Brazil first launched its nanotechnology program in 2005 with a budget of about $31 million with 10 research networks including about 300 doctoral researchers.
Brazil’s research focuses on nanoparticles, nanophotonics, nanobiotechnology, carbon nanotubes, nanocosmetics, and simulation and modeling of nanostructures.
Brazil has a strong cooperation relationship in its plan from 2007 to 2013 with the European Union, South Africa and India, which has strengthened its capabilities in the field of nanotechnology.
India:
India launched the Active Nanoscience and Technology Initiative within the government's five-year plan from 2007 to 2012 with an estimated budget of $254 million.
The plan aims to develop centers of excellence targeting laboratories, infrastructure, and human resources development.
– Many states are actively involved in nanotechnology programs such as Karnataka, Trivandrum, and Tamil Nadu which are involved in activities related to biotechnology and health.
The Indian Ministry of Science and Technology is the agency responsible for both basic and applied research in nanotechnology, and its areas of focus include nanotubes, nanowires, DNA chips, and nanostructured alloys.
South Africa:
South Africa strategically began its nanotechnology activities with a budget of $2.7 million in 2005.
It spent a total amount of about $77.5 million from 2005 to 2012.
– South Africa enjoys strong cooperation with foreign partners, especially Brazil and India.
Malaysia:
Malaysia began its plan in the field of nanotechnology in 2001 and classified it as a strategic plan that lasts from 2001 to 2005.
- A more robust 15-year plan was developed from 2005 to 2020 with more than 150 researchers.
– Locally, it focuses on nanotechnology for the development of materials and biotechnology to encourage the development of new companies and new products.
Thailand:
The establishment of the National Nanotechnology Center was approved in Thailand in 2003.
The nanoscience program in Thailand receives funding of approximately $2 million annually.
Singapore:
Singapore has advanced nanotechnology capabilities using nanomaterials and nanodevices in the manufacturing of microelectronics, microelectromechanical systems, clean energy, and medical technology.
It has many small and medium-sized companies in the field of nanotechnology.
Sri Lanka:
– Despite limited R&D infrastructure and limited funding from the government, Sri Lanka has demonstrated a commitment to developing nanotechnology through public-private partnerships and with the support of enthusiastic scientists.
She launched her nanotechnology initiative in 2007.
- The Sri Lanka Institute of Nanotechnology was established as a private company with a capital of 420 million Sri Lankan rupees (about 3.7 million dollars) in 2008.
Iran:
Iran launched its National Nanotechnology Initiative in 2005 for 10 years until 2015.
Half of the budget for nanotechnology is financed by the private sector, whose scientists and industries are actively involved in international cooperation activities.
It has an established educational program to train master’s and doctoral students in about 50 universities and research institutes, and its priorities are in the field of research and development in energy, health, water, environment, nanomaterials, and construction.
Iran plays a prominent role in the Energy and Water Working Group of the Asian Nano Forum.
Taiwan:
– Taiwan's National Nanoscience Program began in 2002 and aims to achieve academic excellence in basic research and accelerate the commercialization of nanotechnology.
The project consists of four sectors, namely academic research excellence, industrial technologies, talent search, and the establishment of basic facilities.
It has well-equipped centers such as the Nanotechnology Research Center established by the Industrial Technology Research Institute, the Nanoscience Laboratory of Academia Sinica, and the National Nanocomponents Laboratory established by the National Science Council.
Through these centers, multidisciplinary and multi-agency research teams coordinate academic research and work in collaboration with industry, as there are about 175 companies participating in the program.
It is important to encourage private companies to enter into partnerships with the public sector to finance nanotechnology programs with the aim of developing them (Shutterstock)
Showing interest is not enough
With the exception of these nine countries that are trying to catch the train of empowerment, the rest of the countries of the world can be classified as countries that are trying to show interest in nanotechnology, because their initiatives do not take on a national dimension, which will turn those countries into permanent importers of nanotechnology, thus disrupting a locomotive that could drive their ambitions and dreams. Towards changing reality and looking forward to a better future, says Mohamed El Gendy, an Egyptian researcher in nanotechnology at New York University.
Al-Guindi lists the challenges facing developing and poor countries towards enabling nanotechnology, the most important of which are:
Lack of political will, and therefore there is no legislative or regulatory framework for nanotechnology as exists in leading countries and countries that strongly indicate towards enabling this technology.
Decrease in government spending on research and development in general.
Lack of private sector participation in research and development.
The absence of research institutes that can translate basic research into applied research and final products.
Lack of sufficient cooperation with donor agencies in the field of nanotechnology.
Lack of specialized education in nanotechnology.
The result of these challenges was that the contribution of poor and least developed countries in the field of nanotechnology did not exceed;
Trying to show interest in doing research here and research there.
But the issue is deeper than that, and requires urgent interventions to catch the nano train, and the soldier mentions some of the interventions that must be implemented quickly, which are:
Establish a Ministry of Nanotechnology or a Department of Nanotechnology under the Ministry of Science and Technology, and focus on human capital development.
Establish strong cooperation links with countries such as South Africa, India and the European Union that have strong capabilities in the field of nanotechnology.
Including a budget for nanotechnology research in relevant government ministries.
Allocating a huge budget for research and development in the field of nanotechnology.
Putting short- and long-term plans on nanotechnology into action.
Encouraging private companies to enter into partnership with the public sector in financing nanotechnology programs with the aim of developing nanotechnology and improving the country’s economy.
Providing research grants for master’s and doctoral students wishing to work in this field.
Source: Al Jazeera + websites