Nanobiomaterials
Structure
Nanobiomaterial is made of nanoparticles, compounds of polymeric material and is used as surface for molecular assembly with membrane or nan-vesicle enclosed configuration. The size distribution is the major factor and controls material properties when using quantum-sized effects. The size control also leads to emit the lights through the wavelength to create biomarkers with recognized colors.
In nanobiomaterial, the core particle is covered usually by monolayers of inert material, like silica or organic material that are already absorbed on the surface. In many cases the layer of linker molecules is a compound of reactive groups at two ends, where one of the ends works as the connection to attach the linker to nanoparticle surface and other ends is used to attach moieties, such as antibodies.
Printing patterns
Printing of biomaterials at sub-cellular scales holds immense promise for studies in life sciences. The ability to create nanoscale patterns of DNA, proteins, lipids, biocompatible polymers and other biomaterials has the potential to revolutionize many areas of biological research and discovery, but until now the technology available to create these patterns has been overly complex, unacceptably slow, and unreliable.
Direct deposition
Recent advances in Dip Pen Nanolithography technology make possible the direct deposition of biologically relevant molecules onto a variety of surfaces. (Example: M/s NanoInk's Nano Fabrication Systems).
A new generation of Dip Pen Nanolithography instrument systems is available for biomaterials and cell biology applications. These systems can reliably print features ranging in size from tens of nanometers to ten microns with nanoscale registry, all under ambient conditions making it an indispensable tool for biomaterials research in the life sciences area.
Health care applications
Biomaterials are used to develop advanced medical devices to improve the course of human life. Nanobiomaterials can be used for human implant, orthopedics, drug delivery, gene therapy, antimicrobial treatments, array technologies, and diagnostics. Nanobiomaterials help with targeting, measuring, sensing, and imaging. They can also help enhance efficiency, safety, quality, and durability.
Biomedical applications
The field of medical diagnosis and treatment has recently seen significant improvements with the advent of many novel nanobiomaterials. Specific functionalization of the nanomaterials is imperative to improve stability, increase efficiency and reduce toxicity.
In biomedical fields, various materials are used for different purposes such as therapy, diagnostics, drug targeting, regenerative medicine and drugs. Some of them come into direct contact with blood and tissues in the human body, while many others are used in advanced medical equipment.
Recent developments in nanoscience and nanotechnology have provided new strategies for material design that are based on the structural control of atoms and molecules. These strategies have revolutionized the field of advanced functional materials. Their combination with the enormous amount of knowledge in molecular and cellular biology accumulated over the last few decades has lead to the conception of new medical technologies.
Cancer cure
Thousands of people die from malignant brain tumors every year, and the tumors are resistant to conventional therapies. This nanobiotechnology provides an alternative form of therapy that targets only cancer cells and does not affect normal living tissue. Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago's Brain Tumor Center have developed a way to target brain cancer cells using inorganic titanium dioxide nanoparticles bonded to soft biological material.
Tissue engineering applications
Tissue engineering applications have an unquestionable potential to regenerate damaged tissues and organs. Artificial bladder, corneal epithelium, engineered skin are some of the tissue-engineered solutions, but most of the pathologies of interest are still to be solved. The stem cells technology has opened the door to large-scale production of “raw living matter” for cell replacement and boosted the overall sector in the last decade. Still reliable synthetic scaffolds fairly resembling the nanostructure of extra cellular matrices, showing mechanical properties comparable to those of the tissues to be regenerated and capable of being modularly functionalized with biological active motifs, became feasible only in the last years thanks to newly introduced nanotechnology techniques of material design, synthesis, and characterization. Nanostructured synthetic matrices look to be the next generation scaffolds, opening new powerful pathways for tissue regeneration and introducing new challenges at the same time. We here present a detailed overview of the advantages, applications, and limitations of nanostructured matrices with a focus on both electro spun and self-assembling scaffolds.
Anti-bacterial property
The researchers at University of Hong Kong have provided insights into the anti-bacterial and wound healing properties of silver nanoparticles, and demonstrated their promising anti-viral effects against HIV, Hepatitis B and H5N1 (bird flu). They also recently developed methods using nanomaterials to fix the brain and stop bleeding, and have a strong track record in nanomechanical research focusing on the degeneration of human intervertebral discs and medical implants.
Self-cleaning property
Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY used nanotechnology to design a self-cleaning plastic in which the enzyme molecules are an integral part of the material. When the plastic comes into contact with bacteria or other pathogens, the enzymes attack the microbes and destroy their ability to bind to its surface. Researchers attached enzymes to the surface of large carbon nanotubes which stabilize the enzymes, are then incorporated into a polymer. The technique could work for any number of enzymes including materials that kill specific microbes or even degrade oil sludge on contact. Coatings of the enzyme-polymer material could protect implantable medical devices from scar tissue formation. The unique properties of nanobiomaterials provide advantageous interactions with the proteins that control cellular function. Nanobiomaterials have an increased number of atoms and crystal grains at their surfaces and possess a higher surface area to volume ratio than conventional micro scale biomaterials. These differences in surface topography alter the corresponding surface energy for protein adsorption.
Biosensors application
Nanobiomaterial research has emerged as a new exciting field, recognized as a new interdisciplinary frontier in the field of life science and material science. Great advances in nanobiochip materials, nanoscale biomimetic materials, nanomotors, nanocomposite materials, interface biomaterials, nanobiosensors, and nano-drug-delivery systems have the enormous prospect in industrial, defense, and clinical medicine applications. Biomolecules assume the very important role in nanoscience and nanotechnology, for example, peptide nucleic acids (PNAs) replace DNA, act as a biomolecular tool/probe in the molecular genetics, diagnostics, cytogenetics, and have enormous potentials in pharmaceutics for the development of biosensors.
Catalyst application
Biological macromolecules such as proteins and DNA are versatile supports for organizing nanostructures and catalysts. Catalysts, including biocatalysts, capable of carrying out the multi-electron chemistry needed to produce solar fuels require multiple chemically distinct catalytic centers. These catalytic centers often involve metal ions in paramagnetic states to maximize reactivity and product distribution.
The application of nanotechnology to biomaterial science has a great potential, however it requires safe fabrication, commercial scale processing and the risk to human health and environment must not be overlooked.