[...]... of nanomaterials in medicine and biology is quite innovative, and much research needs to be completed before we have a full understanding on nanomaterials and nanostructures Development of nanomaterials and nanotechniques relies often on well-established progress in the electronic and optical engineering field (see Tables 1 and 2) Several methods have been developed Structure and Biology of the Cellular... Silva and V Parpura (eds.), Nanotechnology for Biology and Medicine: At the Building Block Level, Fundamental Biomedical Technologies, DOI 10.1007/978-0-387-31296-5_1, © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012 3 4 I Titushkin et al engineering, elucidation of the ECM structure and biology also has a rather critical implication Dynamic interactions between ECM and cell must be characterized and understood... proteoglycans and GAG chains (Fig 1) Fibrillar collagen forms the major matrix, strengthens the scaffold, and also provides substratum for cell adhesion GAGs fill a large volume and form highly hydrated gels in ECM Adhesion proteins in the matrix and on the surface of cell membrane bind macromolecules and cells to build up ECM into an active and dynamic organization that can influence the cellular cytoskeleton and. .. Contributors Ratnesh Lal Departments of Mechanical and Aerospace, and Bio-engineering, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA James J Norman Warner Babcock Institute for Green Chemistry, LLC, Wilmington, MA, USA Vladimir Parpura Department of Neurobiology, Atomic Force Microscopy & Nanotechnology Laboratories, Center for Glial Biology in Medicine, Civitan International Research Center,... Atomic Force Microscopy & Nanotechnology Laboratories, Center for Glial Biology in Medicine, Civitan International Research Center, Evelyn F McKnight Brain Institute, University of Alabama, Birmingham, AL, USA; Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco and Veterans Affairs Medical Center, San Francisco, CA, USA Gabriel A Silva Departments of Bioengineering and Ophthalmology and. .. Chiara Daraio and Sungho Jin Characterization of Nanoscale Biological Systems: Multimodal Atomic Force Microscopy for Nanoimaging, Nanomechanics, and Biomolecular Interactions Arjan P Quist and Ratnesh Lal Part III 3 27 45 Nanobiotechnology: Biologically Inspired Nanoengineering and Their Applications Molecular Motors and Machines Serena Silvi and Alberto Credi 71 Micro and Nano Engineered... Matrices 101 James J Norman and Tejal A Desai Designer Self-Assembling Peptide Nanofiber Scaffolds 123 Shuguang Zhang, Hidenori Yokoi, Fabrizio Gelain, and Akihiro Horii xiii xiv Part IV Contents Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology for Diagnosis and Treatment Quantum Dot Imaging of Neural Cells and Tissue 151 Tania Q Vu and Sujata Sundara Rajan Quantum Dot Methods for Cellular Neuroimaging ... Diane Yu for her assistance We thank all the authors for their contributions This book would not exist without them xi Contents Part I Nanoscale Processes in Cells Structure and Biology of the Cellular Environment: The Extracellular Matrix Igor Titushkin, Shan Sun, and Michael Cho Part II Synthesis and Characterization Approaches Synthesis and Patterning Methods for Nanostructures Useful for Biological... migration and regulates cell differentiation, metabolic activity, and cell–cell signaling, and therefore intimately involved in cellular and molecular response and behavior of the cell For example, the ECM is found to harbor potent signaling cues, such as cytokines and growth factors (Engel 2004) Furthermore, the relationship between cell and ECM can be considered bidirectional (Cukierman et al 2001;... fibronectin, and matrix degrading proteases and their inhibitors Latent TGF-b1, released from platelets and inflammatory cells, is activated by proteolytic and non-proteolytic mechanisms to influence wound healing from initial clot formation to the final stage of matrix deposition and remodeling (Wahl 1999) ECM also acts as a reservoir for growth factors required during healing Fibroblast growth factors (FGF-1 and . development and application of nanotechnology to biology and medicine. They are intended to provide the reader with an appreciation for and an understanding. Portland , OR , USA Reno C. Reyes Department of Neurobiology, Atomic Force Microscopy & Nanotechnology Laboratories, Center for Glial Biology in Medicine,