Curr Opin Biotechnol. 2013 Aug;24(4):551-4. doi: 10.1016/j.copbio.2013.06.003. Epub 2013 Jul 12.
Nanotechnology, the area of science focused on the control of matter in the nanometer scale, allows ground-breaking changes of the fundamental properties of matter that are often radically different compared to those exhibited by the bulk counterparts. In view of the fact that dimensionality plays a key role in determining the qualities of matter, the realization of the great potential of nanotechnology has opened the door to other disciplines such as life sciences and medicine, where the merging between them offers exciting new applications, along with basic science research. The application of nanotechnology in life sciences, nanobiotechnology, is now having a profound impact on biological circuit design, bioproduction systems, synthetic biology, medical diagnostics, disease therapy and drug delivery. This special issue is dedicated to the overview of how we are learning to control biopolymers and biological machines at the molecular- and nanoscale. In addition, it covers far-reaching progress in the design and synthesis of nanoscale materials, thus enabling the construction of integrated systems in which the component blocks are comparable in size to the chemical and biological entities under investigation.
纳米技术是一门专注于控制物质在纳米尺度上的科学领域，它允许对物质的基本性质进行突破性的改变，这些性质通常与大块物质所表现出的性质有很大的不同。鉴于维度在决定物质性质方面起着关键作用，纳米技术的巨大潜力的实现为其他学科（如生命科学和医学）打开了大门，它们之间的融合带来了令人兴奋的新应用以及基础科学研究。纳米技术在生命科学中的应用，即纳米生物技术，正在对生物电路设计、生物生产系统、合成生物学、医学诊断、疾病治疗和药物输送产生深远的影响。本期特刊专门介绍了我们如何学习在分子和纳米尺度上控制生物聚合物和生物机器的概述。此外，它还涵盖了在纳米尺度材料的设计和合成方面的深远进展，从而能够构建集成系统，其中组件块的尺寸与所研究的化学和生物实体相当。
