Perspective

*Author for correspondence:

E-mail Address: pierce7@post.harvard.edu

Harvard Law School, Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law & Policy, Biotechnology & Bioethics, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA

Published Online:16 Oct 2015https://doi.org/10.2217/nnm.15.168

Abstract

Translational nanomedicine occurs only through the successful integration of multiple inputs and iterative modifications. The therapeutic window plays a pivotal role in the trajectory of translational nanomedicine. Often defined in terms of the range of dosage for safe and effective therapeutic effect, a second definition of the therapeutic window refers to the often narrow temporal window in which a therapeutic effect can be obtained. Expanding the second definition to explicitly include the spatial dimension, this article explores aspects of the therapeutic spaces created by nanomedicine that shift the traditional dimensions of symptom, sign and pathology. This article analyzes three aspects of the therapeutic window in nanomedicine – temporal, spatial and manner of construction and their impact on the dimensions of modern medicine.

Keywords:

Papers of special note have been highlighted as: • of interest; •• of considerable interest

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Vol. 10, No. 21

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Published online 16 October 2015

Published in print November 2015

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Acknowledgements

The author is deeply indebted to the guest editors, Michael Schillmeier and Robert Luxenhoefer, as well as the anonymous reviewers for insightful comments and engagement with this manuscript. The author also thanks Julian Cockbain, Arlene Katz and Bethany Hipple Walters for thoughtful discussions of this work.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

The author has no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

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Translational nanomedicine – through the therapeutic window

Abstract

References