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Nanotechnology is rapidly opening new possibilities in a wide variety of disciplines. Biomedical micro- and nano-devices, with components geometries as large as hundreds of microns to as small as a few nanometers, have potential uses that range from the analysis of biomolecules to disease diagnosis, prevention and treatment. Exciting technological advances have been made in nanofabrication and in micro- and nano-electromechanical systems [1] (MEMS, NEMS), microfluidic devices [2], micro- or nano-optics (diffractive optics [3], high efficiency multilevel zone plates [4], photonic crystals [5]), and innovations in the toolset of biology (microfluidic chips for DNA array [6]) and medical (microsurgical tools [7] and drug delivery), provide examples of advancement in nanotechnology. The application of carbon nanotube atomic force microscopy (AFM) imaging enabled multiplex detection of the positions of specific DNA sequences labelled with nanometer-size tags [8]. This method allowed the direct determination of haplotypes of patient samples, and provided a more accurate assessment of cancer risk from the UGT1A7 gene [8]. The phage display approach for isolating peptides with high binding affinities to specific crystal types discussed by Whaley et al. [9] might find use both in synthesis and self-assembly of hetero-structures made from nano-particles. The research in tissue engineering stands to benefit most from our growing ability to fabricate complex nano-structured materials. The enormous potential in nanotechnology is at least a few years from beginning to materialize the products and technologies involved in the medical application of nanotechnology. But the possibility of improved speed, greater sensitivity, reduced cost, and decreased invasiveness, has generated substantial interest in miniaturized devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]