Exploitation of new lanthanide technology

该项目旨在开发化学分析和新的分析方法，以确定选定的生物活性物种，包括肿瘤标记物。该项目基于源自稀土化学的新化学技术，与临床/生化分析和诊断分子成像的开发直接相关，例如用于筛选前列腺癌临床样本或用于尿液分析以监测代谢物成分。在最近的EPSRC项目拨款支持过程中，已经取得了关键的科学突破，该项目将努力通过与目标企业签订许可和IP转让协议来利用这些突破。发光分子可以以非常高的灵敏度被检测到，甚至可以检测到单分子，并在生命科学和临床科学的许多应用中继续取代放射性标记。这些荧光物质的设计应该是化学稳定的，并且必须抵抗猝灭其荧光的过程。他们还必须能够定位到想要的目标，并向观察者发送信息，指示他们在哪里。该行业需要新的系统来发射更长寿命的荧光信号，这种信号对有关当地环境性质的信息进行编码。例如，这些响应性探测器可以发射两到三个不同波长的光，而这些波长上发射的光的相对强度表明了选定生物活性物种的局部浓度。已经确定的复合体不仅可以寻找细胞的特定部分，而且还可以在其荧光信号中提供编码信息，告诉观察者该环境的局部化学成分，以及它可能如何随着时间和外部扰动而变化。

This project seeks to develop chemical assays and novel analytical methodology for the determination of selected bioactive species, including tumour markers. The project is based on new chemical technology derived from lanthanide chemistry and is of direct relevance to clinical/biochemical analyses and the development of diagnostic molecular imaging, e.g. for screening of clicial samples for prostate cancer or in urine analysis to monitor metabolite compostion. The key scientific breakthroughs have been made during the course of recent EPSRC project grant support and the project will strive to capitalise on these through licensing and IP transfer agreements with targeted enterprises.Luminescent molecules can be detected with very high sensitivity, down to levels of detecting single molecules, and continue to replace radioactive labels in many applications in the life and clinical sciences. These fluorescent entities should be designed to be chemically stable and must resist processes which quench their fluorescence. They must also be able to localise at the desired target and send information to the observer that signals where they are. The industry requires new systems that emit a longer-lived fluorescent signal which encodes information about the nature of the local environment. These responsive probes, may for example, emit light at two or three different wavelengths, and the relative intensity of the emitted light at these wavelengths is indicative of the local concentration of selected bioactive species. Complexes have been identified that not only seek out particular parts of the cell, but can also give encoded information in their fluorescence signal that tells the observer about the local chemical composition of that environment, and how it may change with time and by external perturbation.