Physicians and researchers from Emory, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, and Georgia Tech are collaborating in a new center for pediatric nanomedicine to develop nanoparticles for use in diagnosing and treating pediatric diseases.

The center is the first of its kind in the world. Specific focus areas will include pediatric heart disease and thrombosis, infectious diseases, cancer, sickle cell disease, and cystic fibrosis.

“Because nanoscale structures are compatible in size to the body’s biomolecules, nanomedicine provides unprecedented opportunities for achieving better control of biological processes and drastic improvements in disease detection, therapy, and prevention,” says Gang Bao, the center’s director and a professor in the joint Emory-Georgia Tech biomedical engineering department.

Emory and Georgia Tech already have had significant research partnerships in nanomedicine, including in cancer and cardiology.