NanoBiotech 2008: Exploring global advances in nanomedicine.

Speakers presenting at NanoBiotech 2008 (http://www. alumni.rpi.edu/nanobio2008.html) focused on innovations in nanomedicine and applications of nanotechnology to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. While exploring some of the cutting-edge research efforts globally underway, the presenters highlighted the urgent need for vigilance with regard to toxicity. Ethical issues were also explored to ensure a fruitful future for the science of manipulating and building things at the molecular level. This is a popular annual conference, now in its sixth year that is held on the beautiful campus of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, USA (http:// www.rpi.edu/). It is multi-disciplinary in nature and attracts world-wide participation for its in-depth focus on pharma, nanomedicine and biotechnology. About 150 researchers, engineers, physicians, ethicists, lawyers, business professionals, policy makers, and venture capitalists attended this year's conference. NanoBiotech 2008 highlighted 23 cutting-edge presentations broken up into various sessions. The sessions ranged from innovations in nanomedicine to current trends in nanotechnology law and business. Some of the diverse subject matter discussed included nanoparticlebased therapeutics in humans, targeted drug delivery vehicles for tumor angiogenesis, reforming the US patent system, nanobiotechnology patents in Europe, ethical implications of nanomedicine, women in nanotechnology, bio-safety issues of nanoparticles and intellectual property as collateral. Some of the topics discussed at the conference that are currently transforming medicine, big pharma as well as the biotechnology industry, are highlighted below: