Feb 10 2014
According to the Transparency Market Research Nanomedicine Market alone is expected to reach over EUR 120 billion globally in 2019.
However, already today nanomedicine enables monitoring, repair, construction and control of human biological systems at the molecular level, using basic nanostructured materials, engineered enzymes, and the many products of biotechnology.
With the societal grand challenge of ageing populations, the healthcare sector will continue to grow within Europe. R&D efforts in the sector staying in the continent should be ensured, while the potential of nanotechnologies and advanced materials supports more effective therapies in health care for major diseases:
- For instance, the treatment of diabetes could be transformed by using nanotechnology to create a ‘smart delivery’ system that regulates glucose levels from within the body. Which by itself means that nano-enhances medicine could one day replace the need for more than 350 million people around the world with diabetes to carry out finger-prick tests to monitor their blood sugar levels.
- On-demand vaccines are made possible with engineered nanoparticles – they are cheaper and easy to manufacture and could save entire populations in the affected areas in case of epidemic.
- Cancer diagnostics are to become more efficient with the help of a new generation of biosensors and medical imaging techniques with higher sensitivity and precision of recognition, thanks to nanotechnology.
- Similarly, drug detoxification is also another field where application for nanotechnology and novel materials has shown promising results in trails.
All things considered, the healthcare industry is in a state of rapid change as it is working to meet grand challenges of 21st century. Exploit the new opportunities in a fascinating and efficient way by attending the ‘Sustainable healthcare made possible with advanced materials and nanotechnologies’ session, which deals with R&D, technology transfer and commercialisation of healthcare inventions, with particular focus on the impact on European regions and SMEs.