Nanoscale interfaces to biology

Nanotechnology has held great promise for revolutionizing biology. The biological behavior of nanomaterials depends primarily on how they interface to biomolecules and their surroundings. Unfortunately, interface issues like non-specific adsorption are still the biggest obstacles to the success of n...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Park, Sunho, Hamad, Kimberly S.
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biological Engineering
Format: Article
Language:en_US
Published: Elsevier 2016
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/103953
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0874-4584
Description
Summary:Nanotechnology has held great promise for revolutionizing biology. The biological behavior of nanomaterials depends primarily on how they interface to biomolecules and their surroundings. Unfortunately, interface issues like non-specific adsorption are still the biggest obstacles to the success of nanobiotechnology and nanomedicine, and have held back widespread practical use of nanotechnology in biology. Not only does the biological interface of nanoparticles (NPs) need to be understood and controlled, but also NPs must be treated as biological entities rather than inorganic ones. Furthermore, one can adopt an engineering perspective of the NP–biological interface, realizing that it has unique, exploitable properties.