Abstract: Healthcare management for the elderly, chronic and acute disease management, critical care, personalised medicine, imaging, toxicogenomics and theranostics continue to challenge our ingenuity as clinicians or technologists and nanotechnology offers promising routes forward to provide new solutions. Increasing demand and awareness of applications of nanotechnology in medicine has resulted in the emergence of a new discipline, namely Nanomedicine, which is now growing at a rapid rate and already solving many challenges faced within various professional bodies, such as healthcare systems, government agencies and industrial companies. The application of science and technology at the nano-scale promises to revolutionise medicine in the 21st Century, enabling us to understand many diseases leading to new insights in diagnostics and therapy and contributing to the development of new generations of medicinal products exploiting:

• Functional Materials
• Nanoengineering
• Medical Nano-Devices
• Nanobiology in Medicine
• Nanopharmaceuticals
• Nanotoxicology

In forwarding Nanomedicine as a business venture, however, it will be essential to manage risk communication and perception in this exciting new field. This presentation will briefly review applications of functionalised nanoparticles for imaging, nanostructuring of the surface of implants for improved performance and longevity, scaffolds for regenerative medicine, nano-electro-mechanical systems for improvement of faculties, nanoparticles for pharmaceutical delivery and some of the new ethical challenges that we will face. The market for nanomaterials will be explored and specific example of the use of dendrimers and hyperbranched polymers in electrochemical sensors for diabetes, signalling polymers used as “smart tattoos” and nanoparticulate “plastic antibodies” will be described in detail, the latter providing an attractive alternative to antibodies for sensors, imaging and even therapeutics.

Brief Biography of the Speaker:
Professor Turner's name is synonymous with the field of biosensors. Formerly Principal of Cranfield University at Silsoe, he is now the Distinguished Professor of Biotechnology at Cranfield University, Commercial Director for Cranfield Health and Director, Cranfield Ventures Ltd, with responsibility for leveraging the University's IP in the health and environment sectors. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, has higher doctorates for his exceptional contribution to biosensors and his contribution to higher education, and is a Foreign Associate of the USA National Academy of Engineering. He led the team that pioneered the technology that now dominates the home blood glucose monitoring market and continues to work for and advise companies and governments worldwide in analytical biotechnology. He has served as an Expert Witness in patent litigations on three continents. Professor Turner has edited the principal journal in the field, Biosensors & Bioelectronics, since its foundation in 1985 and published the first text book on Biosensors in 1987. He has over 600 publications and patents in the field of biosensors and biomimetic sensors and has presented well over 400 keynote and plenary lectures. In association with the UK Institute of Nanotechnology, he has developed and delivered a suite of Short Courses in Nanomedicine and Cranfield University has recently launched the first Masters Course in Nanomedicine.