Medical applications of fullerenes and metallofullerenes

Empty fullerenes and endohedral metallofullerenes bring to medicine novel, 3-dimensional carbon structures that can be made water soluble, non-toxic and tissue or mission selective. In particular, endohedral metallofullerenes provide a new class of compounds for delivery of metal ions such as lanthanides in activated form for nuclear medicine and non-activated form as contrast media. Forthcoming breakthroughs in the synthesis and manipulation of these compounds promise lower cost, more sophisticated analogs capable of challenging present market-place technologies.