Optically Active, Paper-Based Scaffolds for 3D Cardiac Pacing.

In this work, we report the design and fabrication of a light-addressable, paper-based nanocomposite scaffold for optical pacing and read-out of in vitro grown cardiac tissue. The scaffold consists of paper cellulose microfibers functionalized with gold nanorods (GNRs) and semiconductor quantum dots (QDs), embedded in a cell-permissive collagen matrix. The GNRs enable cardiomyocyte activity modulation through local temperature gradients induced by modulated near-infrared (NIR) laser illumination, with the local temperature changes reported by temperature-dependent QD photoluminescence (PL).

Bifunctional Microbead Carriers with Magnetic Response and Plasmonic Fluorescence Enhancement.

In this work, we combine the magnetic microbeads fabricated by microfluidics with nanoplasmonic-assisted fluorescence enhancement for the first time. These bifunctional microbeads not only have high fluorescence enhancement factor but also have magnetic response. The magnetic polymer microbeads were generated by capillary microfluidic device and then coated uniformly by the gold nano-islands layer.