Table 1.

Overview of nanoparticles and their applications in Life Sciences

Particle class	Materials	Application
Natural materials or derivatives	Chitosan Dextrane Gelatine Alginates Liposomes Starch	Drug/Gene delivery
Dendrimers	Branched polymers	Drug delivery
Fullerenes	Carbon based carriers	Photodynamics Drug delivery
Polymer carriers	Polylactic acid Poly(cyano)acrylates Polyethyleinemine Block copolymers Polycaprolactone	Drug/gene delivery
Ferrofluids	SPIONS USPIONS	Imaging (MRI)
Quantum dots	Cd/Zn-selenides	Imaging In vitro diagnostics
Various	Silica-nanoparticles Mixtures of above	Gene delivery