The main idea behind the current thematic issue of the Methodist DeBakey Cardiovascular Journal on cardiovascular nanomedicine is to emphasize the growing relevance of the field and the potential of nanotechnology to revolutionize current clinical practice. In this editorial, we will provide a brief history of the field of biomedical nanotechnology and introduce some of the topics that will be highlighted in this issue. Nanotechnology can be defined as the science of synthetic/engineerable objects with unique characteristics that emerge due to the objects’ nanoscopic dimensions or imperative

functional components.1 Another fundamental element in this definition Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical is Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical the ability to sustain and explain the observed unique behavior on the nanoscale by a mechanism of action. Currently, nanotechnology is a fast-rising area of research gaining support from

scientists in the academic, industry, and regulatory/federal sectors. In fact, since its establishment in 2001, the cumulative National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) program investment (including the 2012 request) now totals approximately $16.5 billion, reflecting the program’s broad support from the U.S. Congress (see www.nano.gov for more information). The field of nanotechnology was foreseen by Nobel Laureate Richard Feynman in 1959. In his legendary and visionary speech, Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical “There’s plenty of room in the bottom,” Dr. Feynman shared his dream of manipulating objects on a submicron scale. Forty Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical years later, Richard Smalley — who received a Nobel Prize in 1996 for the discovery of the fullerene carbon-60 molecule — stated that “human health has always been determined on the nanometer scale; this is where the structure and properties of the machines of life work in every one of the cells in every living thing.”2 Nanomedicine synergistically cross-fertilizes the concepts of find protocol nanofabrication, chemistry, biology, and medicine, synthesizing new and emergent technologies with the ultimate goal of gaining precise control over the biological

processes occurring on a submicron scale. In Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical the past few decades, nanomedicine has progressively developed into a strong Casein kinase 1 multidisciplinary field,3 enabling prominent technological advances such as intelligent materials and substances with durable surface coating, faster electronics, responsive biosensors, targeted therapeutic nanovectors, and improved nanodiagnostics. Unmet needs in medicine provide an opportunity to develop new, nanoscience-enabled, sophisticated technologies. A critical challenge facing contemporary medicine is the personalization of therapy. Personalized medicine can be defined as an individualized treatment strategy developed for a specific patient based on results from that patient’s clinical samples, including sophisticated diagnostic imaging and genomic and proteomic analysis.