Luminescent multifunctional nanostructures for sensing and theranostics applications
- The research carried out at the Laboratory of Spectroscopy of Functional Materials at IFSC/USP, in Brazil, is focused on the synthesis and structural-property correlation of luminescent materials including rare-earth (RE) doped glasses, ceramics and hybrid host-guest materials. For the past five years, we have been particularly interested in the development of single- and multifunctional nanosystems based on core-shell upconversion nanoparticles (UCNP) associated with dyes, organometallic complexes and other organic molecules, for biophotonic and sensing applications. In these systems, we take advantage of energy transfer between the UCNPs and the molecules to either supress or enhance luminescent response. Examples include the possibility of bioimaging and photodynamic therapy of bacteria and cancer cells, simultaneous magnetothermia and thermometry, localized O2 sensing, fast detection and quantification of biological markers (e.g. kidney disease) and microorganisms. On what concernsThe research carried out at the Laboratory of Spectroscopy of Functional Materials at IFSC/USP, in Brazil, is focused on the synthesis and structural-property correlation of luminescent materials including rare-earth (RE) doped glasses, ceramics and hybrid host-guest materials. For the past five years, we have been particularly interested in the development of single- and multifunctional nanosystems based on core-shell upconversion nanoparticles (UCNP) associated with dyes, organometallic complexes and other organic molecules, for biophotonic and sensing applications. In these systems, we take advantage of energy transfer between the UCNPs and the molecules to either supress or enhance luminescent response. Examples include the possibility of bioimaging and photodynamic therapy of bacteria and cancer cells, simultaneous magnetothermia and thermometry, localized O2 sensing, fast detection and quantification of biological markers (e.g. kidney disease) and microorganisms. On what concerns the development of luminescent sensors - a recently started project, our aim is to develop paper-based platforms for point-of-care devices. In this presentation, an overview of our contributions for the past years and our future aims will be presented with several examples.…