Keynote lecture 4: “Nanotechnology tools for life sciences”

In many modern fields of life science research the nanometer scale becomes of increasing importance. This is in no contradiction to the strong trend of treating complex biological entities, such as cells, as complete systems that have to be understood as a whole and in the context of complex interactions with their environment. While this system approach clearly goes beyond traditional concepts of examining individual biological processes in an isolated manner, it does nevertheless necessitate their microscopic or molecular level understanding. In this presentation some examples are discussed where nanotechnology and NEMS contribute to this field of research.