NANO-BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING:
CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

Víctor M. Castaño

Centro de Física Aplicada y Tecnología Avanzada
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Campus Juriquilla, Querétaro
castano@fata.unam.mx
www.fata.unam.mx

A brief review of the main challenges that biomedical engineering faces today will be offered, emphasizing the need for novel approaches for solving some of the most urgent demands from the practicing surgeons and MD´s. Then a number of examples of how nanotechnology could open fascinating opportunities in thsi area will be explained in detail, from smart membranes, which adjust themselves to the physical and/or chemical conditions of the environment, to small-diameter biocompatible vein replacements, with built-in anti-thrombosis properties, including topical medication through reptating nanoparticles, as well as a number of other technologies which could change, within few decades, the biomedical technology. Finally, a discussion on what could realistically be expected in this fiels, beyond academic speculations, will be proposed.