1. European Cooperation in the field of Scientific and Technical Research COST is supported by the EU RTD Framework Programme ESF provides the COST Office through an EC contract BMBS www.cost.esf.org Action: TD 1002 AFM4NanoMed&Bio Years:1 Participating countries: AT BE HR DK FI FR DE GR HU IE IL IT LT LU NL PL PT RO ES CH UK Chair of the Action: Pierre Parot, FR, parot@cea.frparot@cea.fr Rapporteur: Pavle Andjus, pandjus@bio.bg.ac.rspandjus@bio.bg.ac.rs Science Officer: Magdalena Radwanska Magdalena.Radwanska@cost.euMagdalena.Radwanska@cost.eu Action Website: www.afm4nanomed&bio.org www.afm4nanomed&bio.org. WG 3 Peter Schön WG 4 Vesna Svetličić WG 5 Ricardo Garcia NanoMedicine Nanodiagnosis Nanosensing Applied WG that uses AFM with additional techniques: fluorescence, Raman, ion measurements… Environmental Nanotoxicology and Nanoparticles Applied WG that evaluates the use of AFM as a tool in nanoecology and nanotoxicology and health risk assessment WG 2 Salvatore Cannistraro Dynamic Force spectroscopy on Molecules and Cells WG promoting fundamental research based on the piconewton force sensitivity of AFM. WG 1 Simon Scheuring Imaging from molecules to cells Fundamental WG that uses the basic strength of AFM: High Resolution Imaging New Instrumentation and Techniques Special WG in relation with manufacturers concerning the specifications of standardized AFM Machines for clinical applications. European network on applications of Atomic Force Microscopy to NanoMedicine and Life Sciences acronym: AFM4NanoMed&Bio Atomic Force Microscopy AFM) has become an enabling platform in nanotechnology. It has provided a great impact in Life Sciences and is becoming indispensable also in NanoMedicine. NanoMedicine is an emerging area, which focuses in imaging, early diagnosis, pathological tissue analysis, and drug delivery. Although significant efforts have been devoted to enhancing the performance of AFM, full exploitation of its capabilities has been hampered by the uncoordinated relationship between researchers active in fundamental sciences, and users in the biomedical field. In addition, due to the swift development of AFM, Life science scientists depend on collaboration with experts in physical sciences to utilize the power of AFM instrumentation. This COST Action aims at bundling the expertise of the most active European AFM laboratories with the biomedical scientific environment into a network to foster further enhancement of AFM instrumental development, and explore and support its extensive applications in Life Sciences and Nanomedicine. Similar to the evolution of the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance technique, which has evolved to enabling Magnetic Resonance Imaging and its widely use in clinical diagnosis, AFM holds the promise to perform the same transition. The result of this COST Action would be to shorten the transition period. The main objective of the COST Action is to further develop and transfer the biophysical achievements of Atomic Force Microscopy to NanoMedicine and clinical research. - Promote the federation and integration of the European community of scientists involved in applying AFM to NanoMed&Bio. - Reinforce exchanges of scientific experiences specialized on biological applications. - Gather the knowledge to develop AFM into a tool for clinical diagnosis. - Explore novel applications of AFM in NanoMed&Bio, pharmaceutical, environmental and food industry. - Provide rigorous training for students and young scientists to efficiently master AFM operations in NanoMed&Bio. - Support Short-Term Scientific Missions of young investigators or students among physics and biomedical laboratories.