Department of Radiology, University Hospital of Cologne, 50937 Cologne, Germany
Nanomedicine, the application of nanotechnology to healthcare, offers new clinical solutions in medical imaging and therapeutic applications. New nanomedicine material concepts allow the design of more powerful, multipotent agents of sizes ranging from nanometers to microns, with new properties and functionalities. These multi-potent particles will serve for example applications as contrast agents in medical imaging for improved in-vivo diagnostic or enable new applications such as spectral CT or magnetic particle imaging or ultrasound triggered local drug delivery at the site of disease. A prerequisite are multifunctional nanoparticles that are tailored towards their application but also take biological requirements into account. In this presentation, some basic aspects of in vivo behavior of nanoparticles are discussed with respect to biodistribution, excretion pathways and biological barriers they have to overcome. As an example, work related to nanoparticles for CT imaging as well as magnetic nanoparticles for magnetic particle imaging will be presented. Finally, an outlook will be given with respect to application and medical approval of nanoparticles in medicine.