A DNA-Based MRI Contrast Agent for Quantitative pH Measurement.

Extracellular pH is important in clinical measurements due to its correlation to cell metabolism and disease progression. In MRI, / ratiometric analysis and other methods have been previously applied to quantify pH using conventional pulse sequences. However, for nanoparticle-based approaches, heterogeneity in size and surface functionalization tends toward qualitative rather than quantitative results.

Real-time particle-by-particle detection of erythrocyte-camouflaged microsensor with extended circulation time in the bloodstream.

Personalized medicine offers great potential benefits for disease management but requires continuous monitoring of drugs and drug targets. For instance, the therapeutic window for lithium therapy of bipolar disorder is very narrow, and more frequent monitoring of sodium levels could avoid toxicity. In this work, we developed and validated a platform for long-term, continuous monitoring of systemic analyte concentrations in vivo.

DNA-Based Photoacoustic Nanosensor for Interferon Gamma Detection.

Tracking protein levels in the body is vital in both research and medicine, where understanding their physiological roles provides insight into their regulation in homeostasis and diseases. In medicine, protein levels are actively sampled since they continuously fluctuate, reflecting the status of biological systems and provide insight into patient health. One such protein is interferon gamma, a clinically relevant protein with immunoregulatory functions that play critical roles against infection.

Hybrid Nanoparticle Platform for Nanoscale Scintillation Proximity Assay.

β-particle emitting radionuclides, such as H, C, P, P, and S, are important molecular labels due to their small size and the prevalence of these atoms in biomolecules but are challenging to selectively detect and quantify within aqueous biological samples and systems. Here, we present a core-shell nanoparticle-based scintillation proximity assay platform (nanoSPA) for the separation-free, selective detection of radiolabeled analytes. nanoSPA is prepared by incorporating scintillant fluorophores into polystyrene core particles and encapsulating the scintillant-doped cores within functionalized silica shells.

Polystyrene-Core, Silica-Shell Scintillant Nanoparticles for Low-Energy Radionuclide Quantification in Aqueous Media.

β-particle emitting radionuclides are useful molecular labels due to their abundance in biomolecules. Detection of β-emission from H, S, and P, important biological isotopes, is challenging due to the low energies (E ≤ 300 keV) and short penetration depths (≤0.6 mm) in aqueous media.

Fate of fluorescent core-shell silica nanoparticles during simulated secondary wastewater treatment.

Increasing use of silica nanoparticles (SiO2 NPs) in consumer products and industrial processes leads to SiO2 NP discharge into wastewater. Thus, there is a need to understand the fate of SiO2 NPs during wastewater treatment. However, the detection of SiO2 NPs in environmental systems is hindered by the elevated background levels of natural silicon.

Hybrid phospholipid bilayer coatings for separations of cationic proteins in capillary zone electrophoresis.

Protein separations in CZE suffer from nonspecific adsorption of analytes to the capillary surface. Semipermanent phospholipid bilayers have been used to minimize adsorption, but must be regenerated regularly to ensure reproducibility. We investigated the formation, characterization, and use of hybrid phospholipid bilayers (HPBs) as more stable biosurfactant capillary coatings for CZE protein separations.