BOOKS IN BRIEF: Bionanotechnology

WEINHEIM, Germany—Despite its relative scientific youth, nanotechnology has been touted far and wide for the impact it will have on every facet of life. As proof of its growth in the biomedical fields, Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH recently published Biological and Pharmaceutical Nanomaterials (ISBN: 3-527-31382-6). Edited by Dr. Challa Kumar, group leader of nanofabrication at LSU's Center for Advanced Microstructure Devices, the book is the second in Wiley's Nanotechnologies for the Life Sciences series.

The book tries to walk the ever-challenging tightrope of providing quick but detailed surveys of the nanoparticle world, describing everything from DNA nanotubes to lipoplexes to protein nanoparticles. The materials scientists in the audience will enjoy the first two sections of the book, which are rife with details about the construction of different particles. For the biomolecular researchers, however, these sections are practically devoid of information as to why any of this matters to people trying to diagnose disease or formulate new drug delivery platforms.

The final section of the book, however, speaks volumes to the biomolecular scientists, providing an analysis of nanoparticle formulation and the application of these structures to diagnosis, biomedical imaging, transdermal drug delivery and bioanalytical methods. Thus, every reader should be able to find something in this volume, it just may require a bit of hunting and pecking to do so.