REPUBLIC OF SERBIA

MINISTRY OF DEFENCE

www.mod.gov.rs

MINISTRY OF DEFENCE

Material Resources Sector

Defensive Technologies Department

Military Technical Institute

www.vti.mod.gov.rs

Nanomaterials for detection of biological agents

Elizabeta RistanoviĆ

Military Medical Academy, University of Defence, Belgrade, e-mail: еlizabeta.ristanovic@vma.mod.gov.rs

VESNA pROTIĆ-đOKIĆ,

Military Medical Academy, Belgrade

SONJA ATANASIEVSKA

Military Medical Academy, Belgrade

DRAGUTIN JOVANOVIĆ

Military Medical Academy, Belgrade

Abstract: Nanomedicine presents the molecular based monitoring and control of human biological systems by engineered nanodevices and nanostructures. It has a great importance for microbiology because rapid, early and accurate detection of life-threatening microorganisms presents one of the priority tasks for public health nowadays as well as in biodefence considering that microbes and their toxins are one of the leading security threats. Diagnostic improvement in this field must be a multidisciplinary task for various disciplines and investigators including bioscience, biotechnology and nanotechnology, chemistry, physics, software engineering and many others.  The nanobiosensors technology will significantly reduce the pathogens influence (including unknown) on human life, providing better epidemiological data as well as decreasing healthcare costs at the same time enabling clinicians to monitor diseases easily with great impacts on the future therapy. The developed nanomethodologies are most-effective, selective, cheaper and reproducible and open the endless opportunities for further research and commercialization in the biomedical field, although it will take time to develop. This paper shows state of the art achievements in this field.

Keywords: nanotechnology, pathogens, detection, biosensors, bioterorrism.