Bioactive Materials for Disease Diagnosis and Therapy

Book excerpt: With their advantages of controlled delivery and modular flexibility, biomaterials have fundamentally revolutionized disease diagnosis and therapy. Bioactive nanomaterials are not simple miniaturizations of macroscopic materials. They exhibit unique and intrinsic bioactivities as they readily acquire a precise structure upon interaction with the biological environment. Nowadays, bioactive materials offer great potential in eliciting specific responses and regulations of living tissues for diagnostics, therapeutics, and regenerative medicine. We are optimistic that the increasing innovations and advances in bioactive and biomimetic materials with sophisticated bioactivities and controllable responsiveness will make an important contribution to the next generation of biomaterials and biomedical engineering.