ABSTRACT
On 3 December 2003, nearly $4 billion was appropriated for research and development over the next
4 years for nanotechnology. The twenty-first century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act
made nanotechnology the highest priority funded science and technology effort since the space race four
decades ago [1]. Therefore, the nanotechnology age can unequivocally be said to be more significant
than any preceding age. Nanotechnology is a collective term that can best be defined as a description of
activities at the level of atoms and molecules that have real world applications in disciplines such as in
medicine and biology. A nanometer is a billionth of a meter, that is, about 1=80,000 of the diameter of a
human hair and ten times the six of a hydrogen atom. Nanotechnology is one area of research and
development that is truly multidisciplinary and it challenges and changes our ability to use all materials
and in the process, gives us the tools and ability to work at the molecular level. The applications of
nanotechnology include sensors, robotics, image processing, information technology (IT), photovol-
taics, instrumentation, new materials, surface coatings, biomaterials, thin films, conducting polymers,
displays, photonics, light emitting diodes (LEDs), liquid crystals, communication, holography, virtual
reality, surface engineering, smart materials microelectronics, precision engineering, and metrology. The
application of nanotechnology to medicine and biology is no longer an idea but a challenging physical
technology that provides us with an extremely novel technological shift from conventional biology and
medicine. The focus of this chapter is the development and application of a class biosensors, optical
nanobiosensors, which are becoming a big part of the next generation of biology and medicine. Optical
nanobiosensors are facilitating new ways of approaching research in biology and medicine in ways that
were unimaginable a few decades ago. One such topic of interest that is important to biology and
medicine is single living cell analysis. The idea is simple yet powerful, using optical nanobiosensors to
study in a minimally invasive manner, single living cells without compromising the integrity of the
cell, which is an autonomous system. With this paradigm, the study of single living mammalian cells
is of fundamental importance to biology and medicine for a greater understanding of the function
of subcellular organelles and biological processes that occur in cells for obtaining a deeper knowledge of
the functioning of the cells, as well as for medical diagnostics and prognostics.
