Is "i.e." in this situation incorrect?

Question

*I.e.* is used when we would like to use a situation as a kind of clarification. Suppose I was to write something like this: > Nano-boxes are used in medical science i.e. cancer treatment, where the nano-boxes are used to inject drugs into cells.The problem, however, is that I would like to refer to an example regarding the cells. How would I write it? Like this?> Nano-boxes are used in medical science i.e. cancer treatment, where the nano-boxes are used to inject drugs into cells i.e. cancer cells.However, I've been told that you cannot have an *i.e.* within an *i.e.*Are there suggestions on how to write it?

Answer 1

I.e. is an abbreviation for the latin phrase "id est," which means "that is." Use i.e. when you mean "that is" or "in other words."

E.g. is an abbreviation for the latin phrase "exempli gratia," which means "for example." Use e.g. when you mean "for example."

You could write something like "Nano-boxes are used in medical science, e.g. cancer treatment, where the nano-boxes are used to inject drugs into cells, e.g. cancer cells."

In my rewrite, "e.g. cancer treatment" and "e.g. cancer cells" are separate, independent parenthetical expressions, which don't affect the flow of the sentence.

One could read it as "Nano-boxes are used in medical science, for example cancer treatment, where the nano-boxes are used to inject drugs into cells, for example cancer cells."

The understanding is that "cancer treatment" is an example of the medical science, and "cancer cells" is an example of cells.

If a reader doesn't care about the examples, it would be fair to read my rewrite as "Nano-boxes are used in medical science where the nano-boxes are used to inject drugs into cells."

Or, you could completely change the structure e.g. "Medical science uses nano-boxes to inject drugs into cells. For example, some cancer treatments use nano-boxes to inject drugs into cancer cells."