Magnetic-Fluorescent Bifunctional Nanoparticles for Biomedical Applications

本方案的新颖之处在于：(1)采用荧光银纳米团簇（少量银原子）作为荧光元件，克服了目前实践中银纳米团簇尺寸增大的问题。(2)氧化铁纳米颗粒的封盖剂直接用作紫外辐射下银纳米簇形成的模板，无需添加其他化学物质，避免了繁琐的合成过程。除了对所提出的集成纳米结构进行常规的结构和物理化学表征外，还将利用荧光相关光谱技术探索纳米颗粒表面上银纳米团簇的详细光物理性质。此外，集成纳米结构的结构完整性将在生物系统中进行测试。提出的工作将为多个纳米组件的集成提供基本的见解（例如，结构-性能-性能之间的相关性）。磁性纳米颗粒通过靶向给药和局部治疗显著推进了癌症治疗，并进一步使同时治疗和诊断成为可能，作为磁共振成像（MRI）造影剂。不幸的是，这些应用受到昂贵的MRI设备的限制，这些设备在普通的研究实验室是不可用的。目前，荧光成像因其高灵敏度而成为生物成像的首选。该提案将开发磁荧光纳米粒子，提供具有治疗和诊断功能的单一平台。除了这种纳米结构在生物医学领域的新可能性之外，纳米颗粒表面银纳米团簇的光物理学进一步发现可能为物理学家和光谱学家提供有价值的信息。集成的纳米结构可用于监测磁性去除环境中的污染物。部分研究项目将被纳入初中暑期实验课程（ChBE320），这是一门五小时的实验操作课，促进学生？通过实践经验来学习，例如建立交流（AC）磁线圈来研究磁性纳米颗粒产生的热量，以及在芯片上创建磁性荧光纳米颗粒阵列来展示生物传感能力。

TECHNICAL SUMMARYThe novelty of this proposal lies in: (1) Fluorescent Ag nanoclusters (a few Ag atoms) are used as the fluorescent component, which can overcome the size increase issue of the current practice. (2) The capping agents of iron oxide nanoparticles are directly used as templates for Ag nanocluster formation under UV-radiation without the addition of other chemicals, which avoids tedious synthetic procedures. Besides the routine structural and physicochemical characterization of the proposed integrated nanostructures, detailed photophysical properties of Ag nanoclusters on nanoparticle surfaces will be explored with fluorescent correlation spectroscopy. Further, the structural integrity of the integrated nanostructures will be tested in biological systems. The proposed work will offer fundamental insight into the integration of multiple nanocomponents (e.g., correlations between structure-properties-performance).NON TECHNICAL SUMMARYMagnetic nanoparticles have significantly advanced cancer treatments through targeted drug delivery and localized therapy and further make simultaneous therapy and diagnosis possible as magnetic resonant imaging (MRI) contrast agents. Unfortunately, these applications are limited by the expensive MRI equipments, which are not available to common research laboratories. Currently, fluorescence imaging remains the primary choice for bio-imaging because of its high sensitivity. This proposal will develop magnetic-fluorescent nanoparticles which provide a single platform with therapeutic and diagnostic functions. Beyond the new possibilities of this nanostructure in biomedical fields, further findings on the photophysics of Ag nanoclusters on nanoparticle surfaces may provide valuable information to physicists and spectroscopists. The integrated nanostructures may be used for monitored magnetic removal of the contaminants from the environment. Part of the research project will be incorporated in the junior summer laboratory course (ChBE320), a five hour laboratory operation class, promoting students? learning through hands-on experience, such as building alternating current (AC) magnetic coils to study the heat generation from magnetic nanoparticles and creating magnetic-fluorescent nanoparticle arrays on a chip to demonstrate the bio-sensing capability.