Engineering new nanostructures for enhanced interaction with imaging radiation

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Nanoengineering offers a unique strategy to form new materials with a combination of properties engineered for applications in fields ranging from optics and electronics to biotechnology and medicine. A fundamental excitement associated with the field of nanotechnology stems from the fact that at the nanoscale, physical properties and phenomena are no longer dependent only on the composition of the structure, but also on their size and shape. One promising area for nanotechnology is in medical imaging, where radiation, such as light, ultrasound, radiofrequency waves, magnetic fields, and x-rays, is used to image the internal anatomy of patients to diagnose disease. *** Using imaging radiation, contrast is achieved between different types of tissues in the body which is then used to form images. However, many disease pathologies have low native contrast and cannot be easily detected. If nanoscale materials that are engineered to strongly interact with imaging radiation are injected into the bloodstream of patients, these "contrast agents" can be tracked by medical imaging to elucidate more subtle, previously undetectable, disease pathologies. Today, most contrast agents are simple nanostructures that have been directly translated from existing structures created to meet the needs of the microelectronics/photonics industry. In reality, the most successful nanostructures for medical imaging will likely result from the design of novel materials with properties engineered precisely to interact with the particular radiation that is already in use in patients. *** Dr. Matsuura's research program aims to engineer new designer nanostructures that will not only be used to detect disease, but also can be activated in the body with medical imaging radiation to change size, shape, and composition. This activation can be used to non-invasively deliver drugs or better characterize a local disease environment to evaluate therapy. Research in developing and understanding how these types of nanoscale agents interact with medical imaging radiation can lead to new paradigms of how to treat diseases in patients, and to the development of new medical imaging or therapeutic tools that can improve patient health in the future.**