Annette Barchanski deals with the question how to design nanoparticles for biomedical research. She considers properties such as size, charge, biocompatibility, and functionalization of nanoparticles from a biologist’s point of view in order to achieve specific cellular responses. The author discusses the structure-function relationship of nanoparticle conjugates derived from a laser-based fabrication method. Both the limits and perspectives of tunable conjugate functions are presented, providing a general outline for researchers to configure functionalized nanoparticles with a specifically optimized design for biomedical requests, e.g. in biomedical engineering regenerative science and reproductive biology.