Nanomedicine: A Soft Matter Perspective

The unprecedented potential of nanotechnology for early detection, diagnosis, and personalized treatment of diseases has found application in every biomedical imaging modality. However, with the increasing concern about the ethical and toxicity issues associated with some "nanoplatforms," biomedical researchers are in pursuit of safer, more precise, and effective ways to practice nanomedicine. Designed and written to be accessible to anyone, with or without previous knowledge of nanotechnology, Nanomedicine: A Soft Matter Perspective takes a balanced look at potential pitfalls and challenges faced by the field and how they can be translated into nonomedicine technologies.

A multidisciplinary and fast-evolving research area, nanomedicine presents new clinically relevant promises grounded in the disciplines of molecular biology, genomics, chemistry, and nanotechnology. Nanoparticle-based theranostic approaches have emerged as an interdisciplinary area, which shows promise to understand the components, processes, dynamics, and therapies of a disease at a molecular level. This book discusses some of the unique opportunities presented by biomaterials at the nanoscale.

The book provides a broad introduction to the areas of nanomedicinal application with an emphasis on imaging and therapeutics. It covers "soft" nanoscopic objects with prerequisite features for different imaging modalities with a potential for image-guided drug delivery. The book also offers a general introduction to the various drug delivery systems and their opportunities from chemistry, materials, biology, and nanomedical standpoints. The chapters provide a comprehensive introduction to the field and the subfield, with a deeper discussion on the individual modalities for molecular imaging and their present status of clinical translation.