Surface-Engineering Gold Nanorods for Biology

大分子、超分子和纳米化学(MSN)计划将支持伊利诺伊大学香槟分校凯瑟琳·墨菲教授的研究计划。墨菲教授和她的学生将研究如何用配体和蛋白质修饰金纳米颗粒和纳米棒的表面，形成细胞将识别为天然蛋白质的物体。要实现这一目标，需要显著提高我们控制配体在金纳米结构表面的取向和覆盖率的能力。这项研究可能会导致新的和改进的纳米载体的开发，能够选择性地将药物输送到细胞中。利用等离子体作用力来加热金纳米结构可以促进药物向细胞内的受控释放。这项研究将为纳米生物技术前沿研究领域的研究生和本科生提供极好的培训机会。

The Macromolecular, Supramolecular and Nanochemistry (MSN) program will support the research program of Prof. Catherine Murphy of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Prof. Murphy and her students will study how to modify the surface of gold nanoparticles and nanorods with ligands and proteins to form objects that will be recognized by cells as natural proteins. Achieving this goal requires significant increase in our ability to control ligand orientation and coverage on the surface of gold nanostructures. The study could lead to the development of new and improved nanometric carriers with the capability to selectively deliver drugs into cells. The use of plasmonic forces to heat the gold nanostructures could facilitate controlled release of drugs into the cells. The study will provide excellent training opportunities to graduate and undergraduate students in the cutting edge research area of nanobiotechnology.