Indestructable Fluorescent Markers in Diamond Nanocrystals with Nanometer Distanc

描述(申请人提供)：钻石纳米晶体中的氮空位(NV)色心是一类新的外部标签，具有非常高的输出，这是因为即使在连续激发几个月后也没有漂白或闪烁，但具有与荧光蛋白质相当的瞬时亮度。钻石主体材料在化学和生物惰性方面也是无与伦比的。NV纳米钻石的这些特性本身就将为细胞中的单分子追踪开辟新的前沿。然而，NV纳米钻石目前主要有三个缺点：1)光谱专一性低，2)颗粒大，3)表面功能化专一性低。为了提高光谱的专一性，将使用自旋自由度。具体地说，将使用磁共振成像概念来解析两个亚纳米间隔的NV中心。为了减小颗粒尺寸，同时保持NV中心的关键特性，将在超纯钻石纳米颗粒中植入氮气。这将提供足够高的纳米钻石浓度，以确保至少每几个纳米尺寸的纳米钻石中就有一个。为了实现高度特定的功能化，含有NV的金刚石纳米晶体的表面将被修饰成类似于封装的量子点的表面，从而使目前用于Q点的大多数复杂的功能化技术立即适用。为了实现这一点，我们将首先集中在氧终止的纳米金刚石表面的氨基硅烷化。这项研究的成功完成将为细胞中单分子的成像和跟踪提供革命性的新能力，最终将在分子水平上更好地了解活细胞的代谢过程，并导致对多种疾病的更好诊断和治疗。这项研究将为在分子尺度上研究活细胞的代谢过程提供前所未有的能力。这种分子尺度的细胞过程知识对于癌症和高度传染性疾病等疑难疾病的高级诊断和有效治疗至关重要，包括那些在生物恐怖主义中预期的疾病。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Nitrogen-vacancy (NV) color centers in diamond nanocrystals are a new class of external tags that have exceptionally high output, due to the absence of bleaching or blinking even after months of continuous excitation, yet with an instantaneous brightness comparable to fluorescent proteins. The diamond host material is also unsurpassed for chemical and biological inertness. These properties of NV nano-diamonds alone would open new frontiers for single-molecule tracking in cells. However NV nano-diamonds currently have three main weaknesses: 1) low spectral specificity, 2) large particle size, and 3) low specificity of surface functionalization. To improve the spectral specificity, the spin degree of freedom will be used. Specifically, two NV centers with sub-nanometer separation will be resolved using magnetic resonance imaging concepts. To reduce particle size while still maintaining the key properties of the NV center, ultra-pure diamond nanoparticles will be implanted with nitrogen. This will give a high enough concentration of NVs to ensure at least one per few nanometer sized nano-diamonds. To achieve highly specific functionalization, the surface of NV containing diamond nano-crystals will be modified to look like that of encapsulated quantum dots, so that most of the sophisticated functionalization techniques currently used for Q-dots will immediately become applicable. To accomplish this, we will first concentrate on the amino-silanization of oxygen terminated nano-diamond surfaces. Successful completion of this research will provide revolutionary new capabilities for the imaging and tracking of single molecules in cells that will ultimately lead to much better understanding of metabolic processes in living cells on the molecular scale, and lead to the better diagnosis and treatment of numerous diseases. This research will provide an unprecedented capability for the study of metabolic processes in living cells on the molecular scale. Such molecular-scale knowledge of cellular processes is critical for the advanced diagnosis and effective treatment of difficult diseases such as cancer and highly infectious diseases, including those anticipated in bio-terrorism.