Research & Reviews: Journal of Material Sciences
MenuISSN:2321-6212
ISSN:2321-6212
Nekane Guarrotxena
Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Spain
Keynote: Res. Rev. J Mat. Sci.
The high demand of multifunctional tools for effective labeling, imaging, sensing leading to both diagnostics and therapies, in nanomedicine, could be addressed by using multifunctional nanomaterials. Noble metal nanoparticles (NPs) are especially useful in this context. They exhibit optical excitations known as surface plasmons, extremely dependent on the NPsmorphology, -assembly, and medium which establish the basis for the molecular recognition, imaging and sensing sensitivity. On the other hand, these surface plasmons also induce large electromagnetic field enhancements, greatly useful in Surfaceenhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) technique. In fact, the exceptionally strong field enhancement at the interstitial sites between coupled metal NPs, allows detection at the single molecule level; and due to the fingerprint capabilities of SERS, also with high selectivity. Moreover, the relevant implementation of SERS tags design has opened new pathways and strategies for the SERS application in the clinical and medical field. The plasmon resonance can either radiate light, which is a useful applicability-process in optical and imaging fields, or be rapidly converted to heat with potential application in therapy and drug loading field. In this contribution, I will present our own and up-to-date literature results regarding the promising use of noble metal nanoparticles (NPs) for biomedical applications. In particular, I will describe NPs synthesis, assembly and conjugation with biological and biocompatible ligands, plasmon-based labeling and imaging, sensing, diagnostic and therapy.
Dr. Nekane Guarrotxena earned her PhD in chemistry from the University of Complutense, Madrid-Spain in 1994. She held post-doctoral research positions at the Ecole Nationale Superieure d´Arts et Metiers, Paris-France (1994-1995) and the University of Science II, Montpellier-France (1995-1997). She was the Vice-Director of the Institute of Polymer Science and Technology (ICTP)-CSIC (2001-2005). From 2008-2011, she was visiting professor in the Department of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Materials at University of California, Santa Barbara-USA and the CaSTL at University of California, Irvine-USA. She is currently Research Scientist at the Institute of Polymers Science and Technology, CSIC-Spain. She has been involved for several years on the dissemination of Science and Technology of Polymers-plastics (where she served as a member of Scientific Committee of Escuela de Plasticos y Caucho and FOCITEC or Association for the Promotion of Science and Technology). She is Editorial Board member of some materials science and chemistry journals and Organizing Committee member of several scientific and technological events. She also serves as Externalexpertise Consultant on I+D+I Management and Policy for National and International Agencies. Her studies have been published in more than 60 peer-reviewed publications, 4 books (also co-editor) and 22 book chapters. Her research interest focuses on the synthesis and assembly of hybrid nanomaterials, nanoplasmonics, and their uses in nanobiotechnology applications (bioimaging, drug delivery, therapy and biosensing).