Translational nanomedicine: status assessment and opportunities

Nano-enabled technologies hold great promise for medicine and health. The rapid progress by the physical sciences/engineering communities in synthesizing nanostructures and characterizing their properties must be rapidly exploited in medicine and health toward reducing mortality rate, morbidity an illness imposes on a patient, disease prevalence, and general societal burden. A National Science Foundation–funded workshop, “Re-Engineering Basic and Clinical Research to Catalyze Translational Nanoscience,” was held 16–19 March 2008 at the University of Southern California. Based on that workshop and literature review, this article briefly explores scientific, economic, and societal drivers for nanomedicine initiatives; examines the science, engineering, and medical research needs; succinctly reviews the US federal investment directly germane to medicine and health, with brief mention of the European Union (EU) effort; and presents recommendations to accelerate the translation of nano-enabled technologies from laboratory discovery into clinical practice.From the Clinical EditorAn excellent review paper based on the NSF funded workshop “Re-Engineering Basic and Clinical Research to Catalyze Translational Nanoscience” (16-19 March 2008) and extensive literature search, this paper briefly explores the current state and future perspectives of nanomedicine.