Abstract
Nanomedicine is an emerging field that integrates nanotechnology, biomolecular engineering, life sciences and medicine; it is expected to produce major breakthroughs in medical diagnostics and therapeutics. Nano-scale structures and devices are compatible in size with proteins and nucleic acids in living cells. Therefore, the design, characterization and application of nano-scale probes, carriers and machines may provide unprecedented opportunities for achieving a better control of biological processes, and drastic improvements in disease detection, therapy, and prevention. Recent advances in nanomedicine include the development of nanoparticle (NP)-based probes for molecular imaging, nano-carriers for drug/gene delivery, multifunctional NPs for theranostics, and molecular machines for biological and medical studies. This article provides an overview of the nanomedicine field, with an emphasis on NPs for imaging and therapy, as well as engineered nucleases for genome editing. The challenges in translating nanomedicine approaches to clinical applications are discussed.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 243-259 |
| Number of pages | 17 |
| Journal | Annals of Biomedical Engineering |
| Volume | 42 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Feb 2014 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was supported by the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as a Program of Excellence in Nano- technology Award (HHSN268201000043C to GB), by an NIH Nanomedicine Development Center Award (PN2 EY018244 to GB), and by the National Science Foundation as a Science and Technology Center Grant (CBET-0939511).
Keywords
- Engineered nucleases
- Genome editing
- Molecular imaging probes
- Multifunctional nanoparticle
- Nanomedicine
- Nanoparticles
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Biomedical Engineering