乳腺癌是目前最常见的女性恶性肿瘤之一，全球每年乳腺癌新发病例达到130万人以上，且发病率以每年3%左右的速度递增。在工业化国家，每8位女性中，就有1人是乳腺癌患者。因此乳腺癌的早期诊断和治疗具有重要的现实意义。本项目将针对"乳腺癌的早期诊断"这一关键科学问题，设计、合成生物功能化纳米材料，应用于乳腺癌早期诊断的两类方法（血清学筛查、影像学诊断）。重点研究相关的四个内容：纳米材料合成和纳米生物传感器构建、纳米生物传感器的生物医学应用研究、靶向纳米造影剂及成像技术研究、具有成像和治疗双功能的纳米材料研发。

Breast cancer is one of the most common female malignancies. More than 1.3 million new cases of breast cancer occur each year around the world, and the incidence increases 3% per year. In industrialized countries, approximately 1 in 8 women develop breast cancer. Therefore, early diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer have important practical significance. This project focus on the key scientific problems of the early diagnosis of breast cancer. This project will design and synthesize the biofunctional nanomaterials, and apply these biofunctional nanomaterials to the two types of breast cancer's early diagnosis methods (serological screening, diagnostic imaging). The research contents include: synthesis of nanomaterials and construction of new nano-biosensors, applications of nano-biosensors in biomedicine, study of targeted nano-contrast agents and imaging technology, development of the nanomaterials with dual function of imaging and therapy.