Nanotechnology in Medical Research

This chapter discusses how nanotechnology already has or is about to revolutionize different aspects of medical and clinical research, with a focus on the diagnosis and monitoring of disease and delivery of therapeutics to treat disease. At this stage, the discipline that has benefited most from advances in nanotechnology is clinical diagnostic imaging, and nanoparticulate contrast agents are already used routinely or are currently under investigation in clinical trials. Drug delivery systems are not far behind, however, and in addition to several FDA-approved nanoformulations, many more formulations which reduce off-target toxicity or increase accumulation of a drug at a specific target site or both, are being explored. In the endeavor to improve public health and health management, a big leap in the realization has been that with the aid of nanotechnology, diagnosis and treatment are not necessarily separate events. They can now be combined through the use of multimodal nanoparticles materials, incorporating one or more reporters as well as the capability to deliver therapeutics. Considering the rapid progress in precise manufacture and characterization of nanoparticle systems and the interaction with their environment, we expect clinical translation of the exciting research in the nanomedical space, to increase in the near future.