Nanomaterials for biomedical applications

Nanotechnology involves understanding and manipulating materials normally in the size range of 1 to 100 nm, where particles show completely novel physico-chemical properties from their bulk counterpart. In the last two decades a number of precisely engineered nanomaterials have been developed for diagnostic and therapeutic applications. For diagnostic applications, nanoparticles allow detection at the molecular scale. Some fluorescent nanohybrids can serve the dual purpose of detection and destruction of pathogenic microbes. The specificity and sensitivity of magnetic resonance imaging can be greatly improved by using nanoparticles as contrast enhancement material. As therapeutic agent, they allow targeted delivery and sustained release of drug molecules and they also have huge potential in tissue engineering. Given the vast range of application of nanomaterials in the biomedical domain, this review focuses on the major nanoparticle based diagnostic and therapeutic modalities.