European Union countries are hoping to spearhead a medical revolution heralded by nanotechnologies that could find new ways of combating widespread fatal diseases and reducing healthcare costs. Participants at the Euronanoforum sponsored by the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, in the Scottish capital this week heard nanotechnologies could diagnose patients and administer medicine more effectively.Treatments using nanotechnology to be developed over the next 10 years could help combat cardiovascular illnesses, diabetes, some forms of cancer, AIDS, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.From the Greek word for “dwarf”, the prefix “nano” refers to a billionth of a unit in the fields of technology and science so a “nanometre” is several thousand times smaller than the diameter of a human hair.
