Nano-particle motion/transport in biological liquids

纳米粒子和基于纳米材料的产品因其独特的性质而吸引着科学界日益增长的兴趣，这使得它们在不同的领域中可以执行广泛的任务。医学是这些材料最有前途的应用领域之一，大量的研究将纳米粒子用于医学成像、疾病诊断、药物输送、癌症治疗、基因治疗等。然而，人们对纳米粒子在生物体液中分散时的动力学缺乏了解。对于NPs如何与周围环境相互作用的清楚理解对于充分了解它们潜在的有毒健康影响是必要的。在这项研究中，将对不同大小和配方的NPs在一系列生物介质中的动力学进行调查，以建议对具有相似行为的NPs进行分组和分类，并了解它们是否以及如何与周围的生物成分相互作用。分析将使用一种新的实时单一跟踪方法，利用光学显微镜中的焦散现象。加强对NPs在生物介质中行为的理解，将为更有意识和安全地在医学上使用NPs铺平道路。

Nanoparticles (NPs) and nanomaterial-based products are attracting an ever-growing interest in the scientific community thanks to their unique properties which allow their usage in different fields to perform a wide range of tasks. Medicine is one of the most promising fields of application for these materials, and an extensive number of researches use NPs for medical imaging, disease diagnoses, drug delivery, cancer treatment, gene therapy and so on. Nevertheless, there is a lack of knowledge about the dynamics of NPs when dispersed in biological fluids. A clear comprehension of how NPs interact with the surrounding environment is necessary to fully understand their potential toxic health effects. In this study, an investigation on the dynamics of NPs with different size and formulation immersed in a range of biological media will be performed, in order to propose a grouping and categorisation of NPs with similar behaviour and to understand whether and how they interact with the surrounding biological components. Analysis will be conducted using a novel real-time single tracking approach exploiting the caustic phenomena in optical microscopy. Enhanced understanding of NPs behaviour in biological media, will pave the way to a much conscious and safe usage in medicine.