Nanocapsules with functionalized surfaces and walls.
With the possibility of creating and handling nanometer-sized objects, it became popular to dream of future miniaturized tools allowing completely new applications in medicine and technology. Mother nature created during evolution many such self-assembled highly sophisticated and robust objects, and it is very tempting to modify them for other purposes: artificial cells as intelligent submarines floating in the bloodstream attacking cancer cells, single-molecule detection and manipulation allowing the bottom-up construction of devices, and so on. Nanobiotechnology became a hot topic and significant budgets have been attributed to it. However, caution has to be paid that unrealistic dreams might have a fairly negative effect on the taxpayer seeing unkept promises. In this paper, we explore the possibilities of using biological substances in material science.
Coelho
Manuel A N
MA
University of Porto, Porto 4200-465, Portugal.
Gliozzi
Alessandra
A
Möhwald
Helmuth
H
Perez
Eric
E
Sleytr
Uwe
U
Vogel
Horst
H
Winterhalter
Mathias
M
D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D015374:Biosensing Techniques; D002214:Capsules; D049329:Nanostructures; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000379:methods
D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D002214:Capsules