ABSTRACT

The last decade has seen an unprecedented progress on new nanotechnological tools applied to medicine. In this context, inorganic nanoparticles have been used, either as single phases or as components of more complex structures, for a number of applications. This chapter is an overview of recent advances on bioapplications of single-phased inorganic nanocrystals. The systems have been selected for their current relevance and by the potential impact in forthcoming nanomedicines that include faster clinical diagnosis methods and target-selected therapies. These applications will be briefly mentioned in order to understand the potential offered by the unique properties of inorganic nanocrystals and relevant aspects concerning biofunctionalization procedures.