Multifunctional Cellular Targeting, Molecular Delivery, and Imaging by Integrated Mesoporous-Silica with Optical Nanocrescent Antenna: MONA.

Multifunctional nanoprobes have attracted significant attention in a wide range of disciplines such as nanomedicine, precision medicine, and cancer diagnosis and treatment. However, integrating multifunctional ability in a nanoscale structure to precisely target, image, and deliver with cellular spatial/temporal resolution is still challenging applications. This is because the development of such high-precision resolution needs to be carried out without labeling, photobleaching, and structurally segregating live cells.

Publisher Correction: Synthesis method of asymmetric gold particles.

A correction to this article has been published and is linked from the HTML version of this paper. The error has not been fixed in the paper.

Synthesis method of asymmetric gold particles.

Asymmetric particles can exhibit unique properties. However, reported synthesis methods for asymmetric particles hinder their application because these methods have a limited scale and lack the ability to afford particles of varied shapes. Herein, we report a novel synthetic method which has the potential to produce large quantities of asymmetric particles.

General and programmable synthesis of hybrid liposome/metal nanoparticles.

Hybrid liposome/metal nanoparticles are promising candidate materials for biomedical applications. However, the poor selectivity and low yield of the desired hybrid during synthesis pose a challenge. We designed a programmable liposome by selective encoding of a reducing agent, which allows self-crystallization of metal nanoparticles within the liposome to produce stable liposome/metal nanoparticles alone.

Discriminating cellular heterogeneity using microwell-based RNA cytometry.

Discriminating cellular heterogeneity is important for understanding cellular physiology. However, it is limited by the technical difficulties of single-cell measurements. Here we develop a two-stage system to determine cellular heterogeneity.

Self-assembled three-dimensional nanocrown array.

Although an ordered nanoplasmonic probe array will have a huge impact on light harvesting, selective frequency response (i.e., nanoantenna), and quantitative molecular/cellular imaging, the realization of such an array is still limited by conventional techniques due to the serial processing or resolution limit by light diffraction.

Disassembly of a core-satellite nanoassembled substrate for colorimetric biomolecular detection.

The disassembly of a core-satellite nanostructured substrate is presented as a colorimetric biosensor observable under dark-field illumination. The fabrication method described herein utilizes thiol-mediated adsorption and streptavidin-biotin binding to self-assemble core-satellite nanostructures with a sacrificial linking peptide. Biosensing functionality is demonstrated with the protease trypsin, and the optical properties of the nanoassemblies are characterized.

Omnidirectional 3D nanoplasmonic optical antenna array via soft-matter transformation.

Inspired by the natural processes during morphogenesis, we demonstrate the transformation capability of active soft-matter to define nanoscale metal-on-polymer architectures below the resolution limit of conventional lithography. Specifically, using active polymers, we fabricate and characterize ultradense nanoplasmonic antenna arrays with sub-10 nm tip-to-tip nanogaps. In addition, the macroscale morphology can be independently manipulated into arbitrary three-dimensional geometries, demonstrated with the fabrication of an omnidirectional nanoplasmonic optical antenna array.

Dura mater regeneration with a novel synthetic, bilayered nanofibrous dural substitute: an experimental study.

Aim: To create a synthetic nanofibrous dural substitute that overcomes the limitations of current devices by enhancing dural healing via biomimetic nanoscale architecture and supporting both onlaid and sutured implantation.

Materials & Methods: A custom electrospinning process was used to create a bilayer dural substitute having aligned nanofibers on one side and random nanofibers on the other. Nanoscale architecture was verified using microscopy and macroscale mechanical properties were investigated using tensile testing.

Non-invasive microfluidic gap junction assay.

Gap junctions are protein channels between cells that allow direct electrical and metabolic coupling via the exchange of biomolecules and ions. Their expression, though ubiquitous in most mammalian cell types, is especially important for the proper functioning of cardiac and neuronal systems. Many existing methods for studying gap junction communication suffer from either unquantifiable data or difficulty of use.

Label-free and highly sensitive biomolecular detection using SERS and electrokinetic preconcentration.

In this paper, we present a method combining surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectroscopy to detect biomolecules in a label-free way with an electrokinetic preconcentration technique (electrophoresis) to amplify biomolecular signals at low concentrations. A constant electric field is applied to charged biomolecules in solution, attracting them to an oppositely charged electrode, which is also used as a SERS substrate. Within 5 min, we observed that the SERS signal of 10 fM adenine was amplified to the level of the signal of non-preconcentrated 1 microM adenine (sensitivity improvement by 8 orders of magnitude) and the method was effective over a wide range of concentrations (10 fM to 1 microM).

Selective and sensitive detection of metal ions by plasmonic resonance energy transfer-based nanospectroscopy.

Highly selective and sensitive optical methods for the detection of metal ions have had a substantial impact on molecular biology, environmental monitoring and other areas of research. Here we demonstrate a new method for detecting metal ions that is based on selective plasmonic resonance energy transfer (PRET) between conjugated metal-ligand complexes and a single gold nanoplasmonic probe. In addition to offering high spatial resolution due to the small size of the probe, our method is 100 to 1,000 times more sensitive than organic reporter-based methods.

Shadow overlap ion-beam lithography for nanoarchitectures.

Precisely constructed nanoscale devices and nanoarchitectures with high spatial resolution are critically needed for applications in high-speed electronics, high-density memory, efficient solar cells, optoelectronics, plasmonics, optical antennas, chemical sensors, biological sensors, and nanospectroscopic imaging. Current methods of classical optical lithography are limited by the diffraction effect of light for nanolithography, and the state of art of e-beam or focused ion beam lithography limit the throughput and further reduction less than few nanometers for large-area batch fabrication. However, these limits can be surpassed surprisingly by utilizing the overlap of two shadow images.

Biologically functional cationic phospholipid-gold nanoplasmonic carriers of RNA.

Biologically functional cationic phospholipid-gold nanoplasmonic carriers have been designed to simultaneously exhibit carrier capabilities, demonstrate improved colloidal stability, and show no cytotoxicity under physiological conditions. Cargo, such as RNA, DNA, proteins, or drugs, can be adsorbed onto or incorporated into the cationic phospholipid bilayer membrane. These carriers are able to retain their unique nanoscale optical properties under physiological conditions, making them particularly useful in a wide range of imaging, therapeutic, and gene delivery applications that utilize selective nanoplasmonic properties.

Aptamer-based SERRS sensor for thrombin detection.

We describe an aptamer-based surface enhanced resonance Raman scattering (SERRS) sensor with high sensitivity, specificity, and stability for the detection of a coagulation protein, human alpha-thrombin. The sensor achieves high sensitivity and a limit of detection of 100 pM by monitoring the SERRS signal change upon the single-step of thrombin binding to immobilized thrombin binding aptamer. The selectivity of the sensor is demonstrated by the specific discrimination of thrombin from other protein analytes.

Creating high density nanoantenna arrays via plasmon enhanced particle-cavity (PEP-C) architectures.

We propose a new solution for high hot-spot density creation by coupling a particle and a cavity in a structure dubbed a plasmonic enhanced particle-cavity (PEP-C) antenna. In comparison to analogous particle-based dimer antenna structures, the PEP-C allows both a higher maximum field and an order-of-magnitude higher hot-spot density. In addition, the hot-spots of the PEP-C antenna can be precisely controlled, resulting in increased reliability.

Optical properties of the crescent-shaped nanohole antenna.

We present the first optical study of large-area random arrays of crescent-shaped nanoholes. The crescent-shaped nanohole antennae, fabricated using wafer-scale nanosphere lithography, provide a complement to crescent-shaped nanostructures, called nanocrescents, which have been established as powerful plasmonic biosensors. With both systematic experimental and computational analysis, we characterize the optical properties of crescent-shaped nanohole antennae and demonstrate tunability of their optical response by varying all key geometric parameters.

Comparison of near- and far-field measures for plasmon resonance of metallic nanoparticles.

With a systematic comparison of the near- and far-field measures of plasmon resonance, we show that significant differences arise between the measures for both gold and silver spherical particles. The difference of the peak wavelengths between the near- and far-field measures increases with increasing particle size, reaching over 200 nm for a particle radius of 100 nm for both gold and silver. We physically explain these results by applying radiation damping to the quasi-static approximation, and we provide simple phenomenonological fits, which readily convert between the peak wavelengths for each measure.

Additional amplifications of SERS via an optofluidic CD-based platform.

In this paper, signal amplifications of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) are realized by an optofluidic compact disc (CD)-based preconcentration method for effective label-free environmental and biomolecular detections. The preconcentration of target molecules is accomplished through the accumulation of adsorbed molecules on SERS-active sites by repeating a 'filling-drying' cycle of the assay solution in the optofluidic CD platform. After 30 cycles, the clear and high SERS signal of rhodamine 6G of 1 nM is readily detected.

Plasmon resonance energy transfer (PRET)-based molecular imaging of cytochrome c in living cells.

We describe the development of innovative plasmon resonance energy transfer (PRET)-based molecular imaging of biomolecules in living cells. Our strategy of in vivo PRET imaging relies on the resonant plasmonic energy transfer from a gold nanoplasmonic probe to conjugated target molecules, which creates "quantized quenching dips" within the Rayleigh scattering spectrum of the probe. The positions of these quantized quenching dips exactly match with the absorption peaks of the target molecule since we intentionally design nanoantennas (i.

Innovations in optical microfluidic technologies for point-of-care diagnostics.

Despite a growing focus from the academic community, the field of microfluidics has yet to produce many commercial devices for point-of-care (POC) diagnostics. One of the main reasons for this is the difficulty in producing low-cost, sensitive, and portable optical detection systems. Although electrochemical methods work well for certain applications, optical detection is generally regarded as superior and is the method most widely employed in laboratory clinical chemistry.