Nanotechnology and biomedicine at the cross roads

Nanostructured materials can be tailor-made by controlled assembly of an array of nano-scale building blocks in principle. While the physical properties of materials are chiefly controlled by their atomic and molecular constitution, their novel functionalities emerge when the scale of the microstructure reaches down to the nanometer regime. The properties and functionalities of such nano-ensembles should be expected to be substantially different as the scale evolves from the nano-regime to the micron regime and bulk the bulk regime. Nanotechnology in general and nanomaterials in particular offer new possibilities to design unique properties from which new applications may emerge. Nanotechnology, therefore, may be considered as an enabling technology for new technologies. Nanomaterials technologies whose inspiration and understanding comes from the biological world, have a high chance of finding implementation in biomedical applications if the lessons learned from nature can be intelligently used to manipulate processes in nature for the better good of mankind.