Research Projects

SYNTHESIS AND CHARACTERIZATION OF FOLATE CONJUGATED FLOURESCENT (NEAR-IR) AND PARAMAGNETIC SILICA NANOPARTICLES

Faculty Mentors: Prof. S Santra and S. Seal

Research Description

Real time noninvasive monitoring of biological processes such as stem cell tracking, cancer diagnosis, gene expression studies etc. requires highly sensitive probes, preferably with multimodal bioimaging capabilities. Conventional organic fluorescent dye or green fluorescent protein based labels are not suitable as they suffer from notorious shortcomings in photostability and lack of multimodal bioimaging capabilities. Therefore, there is certainly a need for developing engineered nanoparticle probes for real time, non-invasive and ultrasensitive bioimging.

The undergraduates will be involved in:

• Hands on experience with microemulsion method to produce silica based fluorescent and paramagnetic nanoparticles
• Understanding the importance of nanoparticle surface modification to avoid agglomeration
• Practical training of optical and magnetic characterization of nanoparticles using UV-VIS, fluorescence and magnetic relaxometer.
• Conjugation of folic acid to nanoparticles for specific targeting of tumor cells