Nanotechnologies hold enormous potential to revolutionise the field of medicine through manifold applications:
- Improved, cost-effective tissue engineering and creation of bespoke implants are realised through the combination of nanomaterials’ size and physical properties in 3D printing, resulting in biomimetic solutions: the use of natural materials and scaffolds without their problems (i.e. contaminations, infections, carried by unsterile biological material).
- Therapeutics are enhanced through both the improved targeting and bioavailability of existing medicinal substances, as well as the discovery of entirely new substances and nanomaterials, which introduces a range of advantages over classical drug-delivery methods, including the targeted delivery to diseased sites only, and the improved adsorption, distribution and duration of medicines in the body.
- Diagnostics are improved by nanotechnology-based innovations ranging from the introduction of increased sensitivity and specificity, to advanced rapid screening processes enabled by lab-on-a-chip devise.
Nanotechnology enables the combination of hitherto separate approaches to health care by permitting the realisation of so-called ’theranostic’ applications, as well as targeted combination products.
Over 200 nanotechnology-enables products have already undergone full clinical trials and are benefitting patients through a reduction of side effects due to systemic toxicity, tailored drug release that ultimately enhances the patient’s quality of life, as well as tissue engineered scaffolding that stimulates bone growth and this significantly reduces a patient’s recovery time.