The design and use of nanomaterials for medical applications requires a detailed understanding of structure-property relationships, which are becoming more well-understood by the community. One aspect of vital importance towards exploiting nanomaterials for biological applications is designing, understanding, and mapping the interactions of materials with the biological interface. This symposium will cover recent and emerging advances in nanomaterial design for tailored biological applications and their ultimate fate in the body. Themes within the symposium will map the journey of engineered nanostructures, from their synthesis and development, their properties and medical benefits and further to their specific interactions with biological environments, human cells and eventual fate within the body. The first part of the symposium will concentrate on design, synthesis and characterisation of new and emerging (nano)materials with properties which demonstrate clear medical/clinical applications, such as medical imaging, cancer theranostics, in vivo sensing, and targeting. Within this theme, welcome topics include the exploration of materials preparation mechanisms and methods, including scale-up, optimisation of properties of relevance for medical applications, and advancements and drive towards understanding fundamental materials science for use at the biological interface. The second part of the symposium will explore the specific interactions that nanomaterials face within biological environments. These include the complex modifications nanomaterials encounter after application in a biological environment, thus the formation of the biomolecule corona and its implications for nanomaterial interactions at the cellular and organism levels, immune responses, short- and long-term accumulation effects, novel targeting methods, and evidence of alternative mechanisms to the enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect for nanomaterial targeting. Within this theme, recent findings which challenge or provide crucial alternatives to widely-accepted mechanisms are encouraged. Discussion of the behaviour of new materials as well as emerging evidence of the behaviour of clinically-used materials are welcomed. All classes of materials relating to the bio-nano interface are welcomed.


Key to linking materials preparation with their use at the biological interface is the ability to characterise nano-bio interactions. This bridging theme within the symposium will focus on current and promising tools and methodologies for reporting on nano-bio interactions. This can include materials with self-reporting mechanisms, or materials capable of informing on or monitoring interactions at the biological interface, and can range from molecular probes to analytical devices.

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