NANOBIOTECHNOLOGY FOR MEDICAL DIAGNOSTICS

Traditional core areas of chemical engineering education are being extended by new expertise in science and engineering at the molecular and nanometer scale. Chemical engineers have been pursuing a dynamic role in the design and development of new generations of diagnostic platforms exploiting different nanomaterials and "are the forefront of this rapidly developing field, with the potential to propel discoveries from the bench to bedside" (Rum et al., 2012). Nanobiotechnology leverages existing expertise from engineering and biology, promotes interdisciplinary discoveries and addresses key elements of next-generation clinical applications. In the present review we attempt to give an overview of the latest technologies that in our opinion hold great promise as the basis of powerful biodiagnostic tools.