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Nanotechnology

Boning up on biology

Nature volume 412, pages 491–492 (2001)Cite this article

Attempts to tailor nanometre-scale objects to mimic and interact with natural materials raise the question of how to predict the biological response to these tiny creations.

The science of manipulating matter on the nanometre scale — nanofabrication — has provided researchers with a remarkably diverse set of tools for probing the behaviour of biological structures. At a recent meetingFootnote 1 on the “Biological Applications of Nanotechnology”, scientists at the forefront of this research showed how these tools are already being used to sequence genomes, diagnose disease and watch single biomolecules perform their natural functions in real time. But there were also a few hints of a fresh theme emerging from all this work: the design of artificial nanostructures that can interact with and replace natural, biological materials. Studies that aim at replicating the complex nanoscale structure of cell membranes, tissue and bone are leading to promising materials with potential uses as implants and therapies. At the same time, the work has the potential to illustrate how cells interact with nanometre-sized objects in their own world.

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Figure 1: The many scales of organization in natural bone.

Notes

  1. *American Chemical Society ProSpectives Conference, Berkeley, California, USA, 3–6 June 2001.

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  1. Department of Chemistry, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, 55455, Minnesota, USA

    T. Andrew Taton

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Correspondence to T. Andrew Taton.

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Taton, T. Boning up on biology. Nature 412, 491–492 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/35087687

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