Biological Nanostructures and Applications of Nanostructures in Biology

Book excerpt: Biological Nanostructures and Applications of Nanostructures in Biology: Electrical, Mechanical, and Optical Properties contains reviews and discussions of contemporary and relevant topics dealing with the interface between the science and technology of nanostructures and the science of biology. Moreover, this book supplements these past groundbreaking discoveries with discussions of promising new avenues of research that reveal the enormous potential of emerging approaches in nanobiotechnology. The topics include: - Biomedical applications of semiconductor quantum dots, - Integrating and tagging biological structures with nanoscale quantum dots, - Applications of carbon nanotubes in bioengineering, - Nanophysical properties of living cells, - Bridging natural nanotubes with fabricated nanotubes, - Bioinspired approaches to building nanoscale devices and systems, - Hairpin formation in polynucleotides. This state-of-the-art survey of key developments in nanotechnology - as they apply to bioengineering and biology - is essential reading for all academics, biomedical engineers, medical physicists, and industry professionals wishing to take advantage of the latest developments and highly-promising discoveries in nanoscience underlying applications in bioengineering and biology.