Geometry-induced protein reorientation on the spikes of plasmonic gold nanostars.

Functionalized gold nanostars (AuStrs) are remarkable candidates for drug delivery, photothermal therapy and imaging due to their large surface area to volume ratio and plasmonic properties. In this study, we address the challenge of achieving therapeutically controlled dosing using these high aspect ratio nanoparticle vectors by tailoring the nanostar loading area and protein conformation. We synthesized a library of different Au nanostars with varied geometries for potential biomedical applications.