Kroll, Alexandra

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MULTI-AUTHOR REVIEWNanobiology—convergence of disciplines inspires greatapplicationsAlexandra KrollReceived: 19 September 2011 / Revised: 29 September 2011 / Accepted: 29 September 2011 / Published online: 21 October 2011 Springer Basel AG 2011‘‘Nanobiology is in its infancy’’ was concluded by Nussi-nov and Alleman [1] who presented an overview of thenewly emerging field of research. Since then, 5 years ofresearch have resulted in sophisticated applications andhighly promising perspectives some of which are going tobe reviewed in this compilation.Nanobiology Molecular and cellular biology havealways been based on the manipulation and study ofstructures on the nanoscale, however, the focus was notexplicitly on the size-dependent properties of the structuresof interest. Biophysicists, on the other hand, have beenworking on the quantification of molecular and cellularinteractions of forces (Blow 2008). The intense develop-ment of nanotechnology and the increasing knowledge ofphysical properties of nanometer-sized objects have resul-ted in a new perspective on biological structures.Nanotechnology has enabled us to (a) vastly improve theanalysis of biological structures and (b) to construct andmanipulate biological objects on the nanoscale. These areat the same time the two main themes in what is nowreferred to as nanobiology: analysis and creation. Thebetter the understanding of biological systems is on thenanoscale due to improved analysis tools, the better we canexploit this understanding to develop new bio-inspired orbio-mimicking devices or structures, possibly also for newanalysis techniques. Nanobiology can be regarded as aconvergence of biology and nanotechnology and is thus atthe interface of biology, physics, chemistry, materials sci-ences, and engineering. Although different aspects of thisfield of research overlap with other disciplines, it providesa necessary frame for the focus on the size-dependentproperties of biological structures and their application.As nanobiology is a broad field of research, the editor ofthis multi-author review decided to focus on three selectedfields of nanobiology described below. One common focusin all contributions is on health care, which has evolved tobe one of the most important sectors of research andapplication.Analytical tools The exact and reliable quantification ofmolecular interactions is an essential field of research. Forinstance, micrometer-scale cells interact with and attach tosurfaces or neighboring cells via nanometer-scale struc-tures. To understand the processes and parameters ofattachment/detachment and interaction are important infundamental research as well as in medical applications.Saitakis and Gizeli review the recent development ofacoustic sensors for probing and quantifying these pro-cesses. The authors present an illustration of the acousticsystems used in animal cells studies and current applica-tions in studying cellular physiology completed by anoutlook on the potential of the technique in nanobiology.Biological nanomaterials The study of biologicalnanometer-scale objects has inspired the design andassembly of biomolecules with defined properties. Onenew exciting and versatile tool are polymer nanoparticles.Aiertza et al. summarize the currently available techniquesfor the synthesis of the latter. The review explains the maincharacterization techniques and physical properties of sin-gle-chain polymer NPs and describes current and potentialapplications in nanomedicine.Applications The range of applications of nanobiology issimply vast. From the beginning, one of the main areas ofA. KrollCeNTech GmbH, Mu¨nster, GermanyA. Kroll (&)Environmental Toxicology, Eawag,ETH Domain, Du¨bendorf, Switzerlande-mail: alexandra.kroll@eawag.chCell. Mol. Life Sci. (2012) 69:335–336DOI 10.1007/s00018-011-0851-y Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences123application of nanobiology has been health care, whichresults in a close link to nanomedicine. One of the drivingideas in this field is the development of therapeutic strat-egies that are effectively targeted to specific structures andfunction at the molecular level. Another main focus is oncost-efficient, specific, and especially, fast, diagnostics.Nanobiochips, for example, are versatile tools for molec-ular diagnostics that can lower the detection limit ofconventional methods by orders of magnitude. The lab-on-a-chip will have a significant impact for the development ofpoint-of-care diagnostics. Valiokas et al. review the avail-able techniques for the fabrication of nanobiochipsincluding suitable platforms, materials for functionaliza-tion, and functionalization procedures. The authors alsoprovide an overview of the literature on diverse functionalnanobiochips. Kurkina and Balasubramanian then go intodetail on the sensing techniques used on nanobiochips andmore specific, functionalization protocols. The review alsoprovides an overview of nanobiochips successfully appliedto realistic samples. In the last section of this MAR, Galvinet al. present case studies on engineered nanoparticles fordrug delivery in cancer and cardiovascular disease treat-ment. Synthetic nanoparticles have been improved toefficiently encapsulate and release drugs and to deliverthem precisely to target cells leading to reduced side-effects and lower dosage.The recent progress reviewed in the following contri-butions highlights the interdisciplinarity in the field ofnanobiology that allows us to work more efficiently andprecise in many applications.Acknowledgments This multi-author review was compiled as afollow-up of the NanoBioEurope 2010 Conference. AK thanks theauthors for their cooperation and excellent contributions.Reference1. Nussinov R, Alema´n C (2006) Nanobiology: from physics andengineering to biology. Phys Biol 3(1)336 A. Kroll123

Nanobiology—convergence of disciplines inspires great applications

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Nanobiology—convergence of disciplines inspires great applications

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