ABSTRACT
Nanotechnology can greatly contribute to the diagnosis and treatment of cancer or tumor at the cellular level with the development of techniques that enable the delivery of analyte probes and therapeutic agents into cells and cellular compartments. The interaction of light with matter integrates major technologies such as photonics, nanotechnology, optical electronics, microfluidics, electrochemistry, leading to the shaping of new research frontiers such as space optics, biophotonics, and biomolecular nanophotonics. Aqueous insulin and aqueous alcohol crystals or colloidal macromolecules behave like adaptive reconfigurable photonic crystals and have metamaterial-like characteristics, with tunable defects. The area of biomolecular nanotechnology is anticipated to play an important role for future applications in surveillance and defense. The chapter highlights the impact of bionanophotonics on biomedicine and molecular imaging. Several nanoparticles such as quantum dots, gold nanoparticles, nanotubes, and nanoshells have been investigated in diverse areas such as in vitro assays, in vitro and in vivo imaging aimed to provide enhanced cancer treatment, and drug-delivery alternatives.
