Nanotechnology: emerging tools for biology and medicine
- Ian Y. Wong1,2,10,
- Sangeeta N. Bhatia3,4,5,6 and
- Mehmet Toner7,8,9,10
- 1Center for Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering,
- 2Institute for Molecular and Nanoscale Innovation, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island 02912, USA;
- 3Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Institute for Medical Engineering and Science,
- 4Electrical Engineering and Computer Science,
- 5Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research,
- 6Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA;
- 7BioMEMS Resource Center,
- 8Center for Engineering in Medicine,
- 9Department of Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown Massachusetts 02129, USA
Abstract
Historically, biomedical research has been based on two paradigms. First, measurements of biological behaviors have been based on bulk assays that average over large populations. Second, these behaviors have then been crudely perturbed by systemic administration of therapeutic treatments. Nanotechnology has the potential to transform these paradigms by enabling exquisite structures comparable in size with biomolecules as well as unprecedented chemical and physical functionality at small length scales. Here, we review nanotechnology-based approaches for precisely measuring and perturbing living systems. Remarkably, nanotechnology can be used to characterize single molecules or cells at extraordinarily high throughput and deliver therapeutic payloads to specific locations as well as exhibit dynamic biomimetic behavior. These advances enable multimodal interfaces that may yield unexpected insights into systems biology as well as new therapeutic strategies for personalized medicine.
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↵10 Corresponding authors
E-mail ian_wong{at}brown.edu
E-mail mehmet_toner{at}hms.harvard.edu
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Article is online at http://www.genesdev.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gad.226837.113.
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