The technology revolution in the twenty-first century is defined by the discovery and design of new materials that are systematically engineered at the atomic level to achieve unique physico-chemical properties that can be exploited for a variety of applications. Recent developments in chemistry and material science have resulted in the engineering control enabling the miniaturization trend in nanotechnology. Among the components of nanotechnology to date, various types of nanomaterials (NMs) offer the widest number of selections and the widest area of possible applications.

The physical, electronic, chemical, and optical properties of nanomaterials (NMs) have are being exploited to benefit medicine. At the nanometer scale, quantum mechanical effects emerge leading to varied and unexpected physicochemical properties that make them useful for biosensor applications that can potentially provide solutions to the problems of existing methods. In this chapter, the NMs that are usually produced in organic solvents are converted into their water soluble form that makes them biocompatible. Various techniques such as ligand exchange, encapsulation, and polymer coating have been demonstrated in the preparation of water soluble NMs. The water soluble NMs that are now currently commercially available contain functional groups on their surfaces making them easy to manipulate for various medical applications. Functional groups anchored to the surface of NMs during synthesis or modification into their water soluble forms provide reactive sites for subsequent bioconjugation reactions. Linkers for these NMs have their unique qualities that provide different medical applications along with inherent disadvantages are presented in this chapter.

Drug delivery in cancer, tumor, and other types of diseases are important for optimizing the effect of drugs while reducing toxic side effects. Several nanotechnologies, mostly based on nanomaterials (NMs), can facilitate drug delivery to tumors. Excellent candidates as nanocarriers must be small (less than 100 nm), nontoxic, biodegradable, biocompatible, does not aggregate, avoids the RES, and escapes opsonization, noninflammatory, with prolonged circulation time and cost effective. Many drugs in the market that are now available for human use are already nano enabled. The ability of these drugs to minimize the side effects that are normally observed in conventional drugs open up doors for applications of NMs as safer alternatives to drug delivery. Depending on their functionalization, biodegradable drug nanocarriers can take a number of paths within tissues. The pharmacokinetics and excretion routes of the various NMs used as drug delivery systems demand exhaustive research to clear the path for their human applications. The path that the nano-enabled drugs take after entry into the living system depends on many factors which are discussed in this chapter. The NM properties that allow its in vivo imaging maybe the most useful property for elucidating the absorption, distribution, metabolism, and elimination and PK in nanodrug delivery systems. Further investigations on the properties of NMs that will allow in vivo imaging and other modes of detection are important as the NMs enter the realm of human consumption.

This book has introduced the basic concepts on nanomaterials (NMs), various types of NMs, processes and syntheses of different types of NMs, and their various applications in medicine. The market potential for NMs, toxicity evaluations, handling of NMs, and a brief history of the beginnings of NMs are described. Each chapter introduced protocols to carry out various processes starting from the synthesis to modification into some of the medical applications of different NMs.

Various governments have become more aware of the possible benefits as well as the dangers of exposure to nanomaterials (NMs) in various consumer products. This awareness has led to various guidelines worldwide which resulted in the recognition for a need to evaluate the possible effects on health and environmental safety. However, the current limitations in the risk assessment of NMs are still preventing proper evaluations, and probably, the possible adoption of strict regulations. Currently, the knowledge on the presence of NMs relies only on information provided by manufacturers. Detection of NMs in consumer products suffers from the difficulty in discriminating between the background signals and added NMs which is further complicated by the coating proteins and other biomolecules on NMs exposed to biological matrix. This chapter focuses on the health and environmental hazards of NMs for a variety of manufactured NMs that may be toxic to humans and the environment. It also discusses the current status of patent landscape in nanotechnology as well as the growing market projections.