Absract Archive   August - 06 Current Scenario of Nanotechnology in India Nanotechnology is the branch of engineering that deals with objects of dimensions smaller than 100 nanometers. Each cell in our bodies contains nanomolecules such as enzymes, which function with precision to manipulate chemical reactions occurring inside us. Such natural nano processes inside our bodies inspires us to exploit the concept of nanotechnology in several ingenious ways such as curing diseases so far termed incurable. Author:Vishal Gandhi Nanoparticles in targeted Drug/ Gene delivery Introduction Nanotechnology is a highly promising approach to improving the design and manufacture of more targeted and less toxic therapies. Emergence of nanoparticles in medical applications has taken an edge over treatments involving chemotherapy and radiation as the severity and intensity of these treatments always show some side effects and in turn the treatment has to be stopped. Nanoparticles have proved themselves the best in the treatment of cancer and are now called as “Nanomedicines” as recognized by National Institute of Health (NIH). Medical researchers work at the micro and nano scales to develop new drug delivery methods, therapeutics and pharmaceuticals. For a bit of perspective, the diameter of DNA, our genetic material, is in the 2.5 micrometers (Box.1) Nanotechnology is more than a linear improvement with scale; everything change. Targeted drug delivery has become an important area in therapeutics. Prospective applications of nanotechnology to facilitate effective targeted drug delivery can be taken into consideration at the stage of drug design. The goal of a sophisticated drug design delivery system is to release drugs to the targeted parts of the body. By targeting individual cells instead of tissues or organs, nanotechnology opens a battlefield of exploding atoms, molecular missiles and pint size Trojan horses in the war against disease. Authors:Meenakshi Malhotra, Indira P. Sarethy,V.R. Swamy Protein Nanobiotechnology : New Challenges in Bioinformatics Abstract With the aid of protein nanotechnology, the problems in bioinformatics can be overcome and will be of a great promise for the near future. Various modern trends in protein nanotechniques, which have been carried out in recent years, like nanobio-proteomics, protein nanoarrays, microfluid techniques, nanobiosensors, nanobiophotonics, protein nanocrystallography and nanobioinformatics are reviewed here. Some grand methodological challenges where bioinformatics, nanostructures, and Protecmics, which will be important areas for the coming decade, are also focused. Keywords : Protein nanobiotechnology, Proteomics, Nanobioinformatics, Nanoarrays, Microfluid technique. Author:J. Jannet Vennila Nanotechnology and its Potential Applications in Biosciences Introduction The integration of biology and materials at the nanoscale has the potential to revolutionalise many fields of science and technology. Nanotechnology is the term to define the creation and exploitation of materials with structural features in between those of atoms and bulk materials with at least one dimension in the nanometer range (1 nm=10-9m). Such size scale is very much relevant in biological system, because the dimension of large biomolecules such as proteins and DNA as well as other subcellular structure falls in this range. In recent years, varieties of nanomaterials have been synthesized and used for biological applications. In the last one decade, the field of nanotechnology has gained tremendous importance and is expected to grow enormously in the years to come. The growth in the science of nanotechnology is primarily due to availability of new innovative methods for the synthesis of nanomaterials in addition to the advanced scientific tools for characterization and manipulation. Several methods for synthesis of different nanomaterials and nanotubes and their assemblies like nanorods, nanowires, nanosensors, nanospheres, nanoparticles, etc. are now available and these include various inorganic, organic and biological systems, all with control of size, shape and structure. The application of nanotechnology in the field of agriculture, livestock, in drug delivery systems of animals and humans, biocompatible implantable medical devices in medical sciences, in preparation of innovative health care products of pharmaceutical industry and in fish farming and aquaculture is becoming popular and is expected to grow enormously in years to come. The National Science Foundation in the United States has estimated industrial production of this sector to exceed $ 1 trillion or more by 2015. Authors:A.D. Diwan, S.Ayyappan