Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
6.1 Introduction
Nanomedicine is “ensuring the comprehensive monitoring, control, con-
struction, repair, defense and improvement of all human biological sys-
tems, working from the molecular level using engineered devices and
nanostructures, ultimately to achieve medical benei t.” Nanomedicine
is the process of diagnosing, treating, preventing disease and traumatic
injury, relieving pain, and preserving and improving human health, using
molecular tools and techniques to benei t humankind. Literally, nanomed-
icine is the application of nanotechnology to medicine. Nanomedicine has
a highly interdisciplinary scientii c crew, including biologists, physicians,
mathematicians, engineers and computer scientists [1-4].
Living organisms are made up of cells with a size of 10 μm and the cell
organelles are much smaller, in the submicron size, followed by the small-
est macromolecules including proteins, receptors, antibodies, enzymes,
nucleic acid, etc. (2-5 nm), as comparable with the dimensions of the
smallest man made nanoparticles. h is concept is applied in the use of
nanoparticles as very small probes to study the cellular machinery of bio-
logical processes on the nanoscale level. h e applications of nanomaterials
in biology or medicine have great potential for use in l uorescent biologi-
cal labels, drug and gene delivery, biodetection of pathogens, detection of
proteins, probing of DNA structure, tissue engineering, tumor destruc-
tion via heating (hyperthermia), separation and purii cation of biological
molecules/cells, MRI contrast enhancement, and phagokinetic studies.
Nanoparticles exist in the same size as proteins, which make them use-
ful for biotagging or labeling. In order for nanoparticles to interact with
a biological target, there needs to be a biological or molecular coating or
layer acting as a bioinorganic interface. Biological coatings may include
antibodies, biopolymers like collagen, or monolayers of small molecules
which make the nanoparticles biocompatible [5-11].
h e use of nanotechnology for treatment, diagnosis, monitoring, and
control of biological systems is known as nanomedicine via the delivery
and targeting of pharmaceutical, therapeutic, and diagnostic agents involv-
ing the precise targets (phagocytes, dendritic, endothelial, cancer cells
and receptors) with specii c clinical conditions and choice of the desired
nanocarriers to achieve responses with no side ef ects. Nanomedicine is a
wide area that uses a variety of nanobiomaterials, including DNA scaf olds,
polymeric nanoconstructs as biomaterials (e.g., molecular self-assembly
and nanoi bers of peptides and peptide-amphiphiles for tissue engineer-
ing, shape-memory polymers as molecular switches, nanoporous mem-
branes); nanoscale microfabrication-based devices (e.g., silicon microchips
