This Special Issue of Nanomaterials examines the potential for engineered nanomaterials to negatively impact biological systems and highlights some advances in evaluating key areas of their hazard potential. Nanomaterial science is evolving rapidly with the generation of more complex nanostructures with exciting potential applications. Keeping modern toxicology abreast of this innovation to the...

378 nature nanotechnology | VOL 3 | JULY 2008 | www.nature.com/naturenanotechnology oxygen vacancies. In the latter case, the actual carriers are lattice ions, which are much heavier than electrons. The scaling characteristics of these metal–oxide–metal devices are not discussed by the HP team, but they should, in principle, be quite good because the oxygen vacancies will probably have to drift...

Though nanomaterials have wide applications in various fields, they also have some toxic effects in them known as nanotoxic effects. This paper discusses about the various causes and effects of nanotoxicology in the field of medicine, in female (mice) reproductive system, on fetal organogenesis and morphology and toxicity of nanoparticles in zebrafish embryo.

Hyperspectral microscopy is rapidly developing as an effective tool for characterizing existing FDA approved APIs (active pharmaceutical ingredients) that are being incorporated with nano or micron-scale vectors for targeted drug delivery. It is also utilized extensively to image and characterize nanomaterials used in photothermal therapy and related theranostic studies as well as nanotoxicolog...

1State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy and Cancer Center,West ChinaHospital, SichuanUniversity and Collaborative Innovation Center for Biotherapy, Chengdu, China 2Lab of Aging Research and Nanotoxicology, State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy and Cancer Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China 3MGH/HST Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General H...