This article reviews the use of mechanical engineering techniques in the field of nano-engineered medicines. Nano-engineered solutions now exist for a range of medical diagnostics, therapeutics, and imaging, and are at the core of many of the current generation of regenerative medicine and tissue engineering strategies. Nanoparticles can be developed to absorb energy with high efficiency from photons of certain frequency ranges. The ability to understand specific diseases such as osteogenesis imperfecta based upon such fundamental analyses has been demonstrated by ASME member Sandra Shefelbine of Imperial College London in collaboration with the Buehler group. The tools of nanotechnology have enabled mechanical engineers to engineer the beginnings of an entirely new generation of cures and therapies, and this article has discussed just a sample. In order to serve as a forum for discussion of these advances ASME is recommissioning the Journal of Nanotechnology in Engineering and Medicine.
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The information used in this article was drawn from a variety of publications, including the following:
