November 9th 2009

"Nanotechnology in Pharmacy"  given by Prof David Russell
        School of Chemical Sciences and Pharmacy,
                 University of East Anglia.

This was the second of the series of lectures on nanotechnology that the Society have mounted in the past two years. In his lecture last year (Nanotechnology - a broad Approach), John Rant introduced nanotechology to the Society and set the theme for future lectures.

To continue the nanotechnology theme for this year, Professor David Russell, Professor of Chemistry and Associate Dean of Research for Faculty of Science at the University of East Anglia spoke about some of the current developments of nanotechnology in the world of medicine. David’s research focuses on analytical bionanotechnology, using biological structures for the resonance spectroscopies development of optically based molecular recognition systems, plus a whole lot more.

This, indeed, was a fascinating talk covering as it did a wide range of the medical applications of nanotechnology. As with so many experienced speakers David was able to match the content of his delivery to his audience, no mean task after looking at the published papers on his website; I had difficulty understanding some of the titles!!

To set the nano scene so to speak he said that extremely thin gold sheet, that is gold sheet about 1/5000th of the thickness of a human hair, takes on an intense red colour, apparently the Romans were aware of this and used thicknesses of 50 nanometres or less to colour glass. David illustrated this colouration by showing the audience tubes containing different sized gold particles suspended in water. An early example of this use of nanotechnology in colouring glass in Norwich is the ‘The Labour of the Months’ dating from around 1480 to 1500.

I found David’s insight into intelligent fingerprinting in the world of forensic science particularly fascinating in the use of nanotechnology in the fight against crime. Apparently forensic scientists can now, using techniques developed by Professor Russell and his team at the UEA, tell much more about the person behind the fingerprint than simply supplying the proof that the owner of a particular fingerprint was present at the scene of the crime. By analysing the sweatglands from the fingerprint it is possible to tell the gender of the owner and/or whether the suspect is a smoker or not. The methods used are accurate enough to detect Class A drugs, methadone, cannabis ( allegedly the world’s favourite drug ) and cocaine; a useful aid to the police when building a profile . Even an aged fingerprint presents no problem, from an old fingerprint it is now possible to build profiles of many a historical character.

David went on to talk about how nanotechnology techniques are is being used in the fight against cancer using a ‘Trojan Horse’ technique to deliver drugs with extreme accuracy to affected cells. Based on photosynthesizers, the procedure which is known as photodynamic therapy is now available on the NHS. This in itself is a milestone in the introduction of the clinical procedure, trials of new drugs and techniques are notoriously long winded and expensive.

The study of nanotechnology is very much the science of our time, studies into its applications are currently considered to be of top priority, funding is readily available at the moment, research into the subject is going on all over the world. We are indeed fortunate in having the Chemistry Dept of the UEA on our doorstep. Perhaps some time in the future we can persuade David Russell to bring us up to date on what is new in his field.

On behalf of the members present, the immediate Past President, Richard Aldridge, thanked Prof Russell for all the effort he had clearlyexpended putting his talk together and for the enthusistic and clear way in which the material had been presented to us.

This is only a very short and probably inaccurate report on Professor Russell’s lecture, if any member would like to know more or ask questions about the topics he raised David said he would be more than pleased to answer via the UEA or the Norwich Engineering Society website.

Mike Vincent December 2009