ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I investigate the large university research hubs through which interdisciplinary nanomedicine has developed in academia. These research hubs are often put forward as interdisciplinary melting pots: I argue that this omits the role that academic disciplines play in the development and sustainability of interdisciplinary research in American and French universities. It also tends to present university departments organized by discipline as rigid structures unable to integrate interdisciplinarity. On the contrary, some departments provide material resources and institutional recognition for interdisciplinary nanomedicine research hubs without giving up a discipline-based identity. I show that disciplinary support for nanomedicine is not the same in different countries and universities. In the United States, nanomedicine research hubs benefit greatly from the nationwide recognition of the discipline of biomedical engineering; in France, where biomedical engineering does not enjoy a comparable status, nanomedicine hubs are supported by disciplines that are strongly established on the local level, such as the physical sciences and pharmaceutical sciences.
