Fluorescent Nanodiamonds

13Nanodiamond‐Enabled Medicine

Equipped with specific targeting ability (Chapter 4), inherent biocompatibility (Chapter 5), and versatile imaging capability (Chapters 7–12), surface‐functionalized fluorescent nanodiamonds (FNDs) have a promising role to play in the magical land of medicine. We mean the medicine of this generation and the future. It seems fitting to have an overview here, specifically, in the areas of precision medicine and nanomedicine where nanodiamonds (NDs) have found their place.

Precision medicine, best described as “prevention and treatment strategies that take individual variability into account” [1], may not be a new concept but is boosted mainly by big data becoming available (and accessible), emerging in recent years as a current trend in modern medicine. In his annual State of The Union address in 2015, the U.S. President Obama launched a new Precision Medicine Initiative and stated that the goal of such an initiative was “to give all of us access to the personalized information we need to keep ourselves and our families healthier” [2]. From that point onward, although not exactly the equivalent, precision medicine is synonymous with personalized medicine. The goal, to put it bluntly, is to provide the right drug at the right dose to the right person. With the participation of nanomedicine, the statement may be expanded to include “in the right place and at the right time”.

Nanomedicine is both young and technological, cohesively integrated from ...