There is no doubt that the molecular imaging is an extremely important technique in diagnosing diseases. Dual imaging is emerging as a step forward in molecular imaging technique because it can provide us with more information useful for diagnosing diseases than single imaging. Therefore, diverse dual imaging modalities should be developed. Molecular imaging generally relies on imaging agents. ...

Spontaneous formation of heterogeneous patches on the surface of lipid-based nanoparticles (NPs) and microparticles (MPs) due to the segregation of two different functional groups. Patch formation is observed when tracing the functional groups with quantum dots, gold nanoparticles, and fluorescent dyes. This discovery could have important implications for the future design of self-assembled NPs...

Highly fluorescent multiblock conjugated polymer nanoparticles with folic acid surface ligands are highly effective for bioimaging and in vivo tumor targeting. The targeted nanoparticles were preferentially localized in tumor cells in vivo, thereby illustrating their potential for diagnostic and therapeutic applications.

Organic fluorescent nanoparticles, excitation-dependent photoluminescence, hydrogen-bonded clusters and lysobisphosphatidic acid are four interesting individual topics in materials and biological sciences. They have attracted much attention not only because of their unique properties and important applications, but also because the nature of their intriguing phenomena remained unclear. Here we ...

Hydroxylapatite (HA) nanoparticles were conjugated with quantum dots (QDs) for in vivo imaging. The surface structures of HA nanoparticles with conjugated quantum dots (HA-QD) were studied by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and laser fluorescent spectroscopy. The TEM data showed that the quantum dots were well conjugated on the HA nanoparticle surfaces. The laser fluorescent spectroscopy...

Photoswitchable fluorescent proteins with controllable light-dark states and spectral shifts in emission in response to light have led to breakthroughs in the study of cell biology. Nevertheless, conventional photoswitching is not applicable for weakly fluorescent proteins and requires UV light with low depth penetration in bio-tissue. Here we introduce a novel concept of photoswitchable hybrid...

Water-soluble nanoparticles molecularly imprinted against naphthyl derivatives could bind the templates with high affinity and excellent selectivity among structural analogues in aqueous solution. Fluorescent dansyl groups installed during template polymerization allowed these nanoparticles to detect the presence of the target analytes by Förster resonance energy transfer.

Fluorescent aggregates formed by self-assembly of a hexaphenylbenzene based derivative serve as a reactor and a stabilizer for the formation of ferromagnetic iron oxide (α-Fe2O3) nanoparticles in aqueous medium at room temperature. These α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles showed excellent catalytic activity in palladium, copper and amine free Sonogashira cross coupling reactions and also in photocatalytic d...

Purely organic nanoparticles based on a BODIPY dimer, BDY-NPs, have been prepared for the first time using a nanoprecipitation procedure. The fluorescent nanoparticles have high physical homogeneity, good stability in water, and low cytotoxicity, which are suitable for cell imaging.

We present a method for permeabilizing cells using a disposable substrate coated with gold nanoparticles. Upon laser irradiation, the unique photothermal properties of the gold nanoparticles facilitate selective permeabilization of the cellular membrane using patterned laser images. The permeabilization of the cell membrane is characterized by intercalation of fluorescent Calcein dye.