Nanotechnology is prominent in medicine for various applications that span use in understanding cellular and molecular interactions to the downstream development of technologies for disease characterization, detection and treatment. A few examples include systemically injectable nanoparticles for the targeted delivery of multiple therapeutic and contrast agents; multi-scale hierarchically-complex implants for the regeneration of bone and soft tissues; micro/nano-fluidic chips resembling the authentic architecture and biology of real organs. Despite the high promise of nanotechnology, only a few of these technologies generated have made it to clinical utility. It is likely that the limited translation of nanotechnology-based interventions to date is also due to the lack of mechanistic understanding of cellular and molecular interactions of these technologies owing to the complexity of biological systems in health and diseases.
We envision the ECI Nanotechnology in Medicine conference to provide a platform to aid in the mechanistic understanding of cellular and molecular interactions/responses induced by nanotechnologies and the exploitation of these understandings to generate highly effective nanotechnologies for the early detection, imaging and treatment of human diseases. The conference will bring together biologists, materials scientists, physicists, engineers and clinical scientists.
Session Topics (as currently envisioned)
- Nano/microparticles for diagnostics and therapeutics
- Nano/microtechnology for study of cellular and molecular dynamics
- Nanotechnology and translational medicine
- Nanotechnology and biopolymer for regenerative medicine
- Nanostructures for cell adhesion, growth, motility, and differentiation
- Nanoscale interactions for cell, tissue and organ
