The Future of Jobs: Nano-medicine

What’s wrong with you?  How many times have you heard this and the answer might have been: I’ve got a cold, the flu….Behind this there are causes and processes that are in the nanoscale: a few billionth of a meter. 
Medicine is trying to cure at the meter scale what is actually caused, and is working at the sub-micron scale, million times smaller. If you were trying to hit a mosquito with a cannon ball you would be working at (approximately) the same difference in scale.
The result is not just a tremendous waste but is tremendous potential of undesirable side effect (just imaging firing a cannon in your home to hit a mosquito…).
The emergence of capabilities to work at nano-scale opens up a new scenario in medicine. Scientists have discovered ways to tag nano-scale particles, like viruses, proteins, and are looking for nano-projectile to hit them.
It is a whole new field, nanomedicine, and it will become more and more important in the next decade and in the following ones. Information technology, and math – a lot of it, will play a major role.

About Roberto Saracco

Roberto Saracco fell in love with technology and its implications long time ago. His background is in math and computer science. Until April 2017 he led the EIT Digital Italian Node and then was head of the Industrial Doctoral School of EIT Digital up to September 2018. Previously, up to December 2011 he was the Director of the Telecom Italia Future Centre in Venice, looking at the interplay of technology evolution, economics and society. At the turn of the century he led a World Bank-Infodev project to stimulate entrepreneurship in Latin America. He is a senior member of IEEE where he leads the New Initiative Committee and co-chairs the Digital Reality Initiative. He is a member of the IEEE in 2050 Ad Hoc Committee. He teaches a Master course on Technology Forecasting and Market impact at the University of Trento. He has published over 100 papers in journals and magazines and 14 books.