Nanotech-enabled drug delivery devices

Looks like the are now have developed a nanotech device to deliver drugs. I wonder if it can migrate past the blood brain barrier? I see this and a boon for medical treatments and a useful for warfare at the same time.

Using nanotechnology, Shanghai Silicate Research Institute, a subsidiary of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has recently created a ball-shaped device that can deliver drugs directly to targeted areas of the body.

About one three-hundredth (1/300) of the diameter of human hair, the device is small enough to travel through blood vessels and can carry drugs the same weight as itself.

The device's surface is full of cavities where drugs are stored. Magnetic material within the device helps it to be directed to target areas. When it arrives at its destination, the protective coating will dissolve and start to release the drug.

Two leading scientific magazines, Journal of the American Chemical Society and Germany's Angewandte Chemie, have published articles about the invention.

[edit on 31-8-2005 by Regenmacher]

I've heard about using Buckyballs as a sort of Chemo Smart Bomb. I wonder if this technology is similiar. This technology could cure cancer by making existing treatments 1000 times more precise. Diagnostic tools are also a big part of the equasion though and I don't know what progress is being made in that. Neat discovery but still doesn't make me wanna specialise in Nanobiotech, still leaning towards Nano-Catalysts.

[edit on 31-8-2005 by sardion2000]