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The field of biophotonics embraces biomedical applications of light, particularly in diagnostics (e.g., optical bioimaging) and therapeutics (e.g., light induced therapy) of cancer and other diseases. At the same time, the biomedical field has been greatly advancing through a nanotechnology, which offers a platform for targeted drug delivery and multimodal medical imaging. Merging nanotechnology and biophotonics approaches resulted in a development of multiple nanoplatforms combining optical diagnostic and phototherapeutic capabilities; optical imaging guided nanotherapeutics is among the most intensively developing directions in nanobiotechnology.
In the last few years, we have been working on inorganic and organic nanomaterials for optical bioimaging and imaging guided phototherapy, along with a development of the advanced optical imaging modalities. This talk will present our recent results on development of heterogeneous nanoparticles that can be detected/ imaged/ differentiated in vitro and in vivo using near infrared (NIR) luminescence imaging. The proposed nanoplatforms comprise polymeric, lipid or protein nanoparticles along with rare earth ion doped fluoride nanocrystals, as well as their nanoblends with NIR fluorescent organic dyes and other functional small molecules, including molecular agents for chemo and photoinduced therapies of cancer. Spectral and temporal features of the photoluminescence from the developed nanoformulations allow for using them as imaging agents in hyperspectral, time-gated and luminescence lifetime imaging. While possessing the NIR imaging contrast and therapeutic functionality, the NIR emitting nanoformulations can also be garnished with other medical imaging modalities (e.g., computed tomography, CT, photoacoustic imaging, PAI), providing a single nanoagent for multiple imaging techniques and enabling the integration of cellular, tissue and whole body imaging. The talk will demonstrate examples of applications of nanoparticles as multimodal imaging guided therapeutic agents and conclude with a discussion on the challenges and opportunities in the domain of optically active nanoformulations for NIR imaging guided phototherapies of cancer and other diseases.
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