Plasmonic nanostructures for application in the life sciences

Plasmonic nanostructures have unique electronic, catalytic, and optical characteristics. The intense current interest in the properties of plasmonic nanostructures with view to their applications in chemical and biochemical sensors, medical diagnostics and therapeutics, as well as in biological imaging is fundamentally based on their enhanced optical absorption and scattering properties.

There has, however, been much less research on the direct application of nanomaterials to biomedical areas, such as labeling, drug delivery, or imaging, in which nanomaterials are deliberately placed in the body. The first published results showed that nanostructures can stimulate cell growth and that their compatibility with biological systems is determined by their surface chemistry. Modifying the surface and the morphology of nanomaterials can make them useful for numerous medical applications by harnessing their biocompatibility and their physical properties.

The unusual optical, magnetic, electronic, catalytic, and mechanical properties of nanomaterials make their application in nanobiomedicine possible. The similarity in size of nanomaterials compared to biological macromolecules, proteins, or peptides is also a very important parameter for their use in the life sciences. The interactions between biomolecules and nanomaterials have formed the basis for a number of applications including detection, biosensing, cellular and in situ hybridization, labeling, cell tagging and sorting, point-of-care diagnostics, kinetic and binding studies, imaging enhancers, and even as potential therapeutic agents. Noble metal nanoparticles/ nanostructures are, for example, interesting because of their unusual optical properties which arise from their ability to support surface plasmons. In this symposium, we plan to focus on biological applications and technologies that utilize nanomaterials with plasmonic properties.

Programme

Topics

- creation of plasmonic (different materials/ composition) nanostructures

- optical and structural characterization

- biocompatibility of plasmonic nanostructures

- application of nanostructures in biology and medicine

Tentative List of Invited Speakers:

Prof. Dr. Anton Fojtik, Czech University in Prague, Czech Republic

Prof. Dr. Harald Giessen, Universität Stuttgart, Germany

Prof. Dr. Krzysztof Kempa, Boston College, USA

Prof. Dr. Paul Mulvaney, University of Melbourne, Australia

Prof. Dr. Horst Weller, Universität Hamburg, Germany

Organisers

Prof. Dr. Michael Giersig

Helmholtz Centre Berlin for Materials and Energy

Glienicker Str. 100, Berlin D-14109, Germany

Ph: +49 30 8062 2753

E-mail: giersig@helmholtz-berlin.de

Prof. Dr. Stefan Jurga

Adam Mickiewicz University, Dept. of Macromolecular Physics, ul. Umultowska 85, Poznan 61-614, Poland

Phone: +48 61 8295216, Fax: +48 61 8295245

E-Mail: stjurga@amu.edu.pl

Proceedings

Proceedings of the symposium to be published as a special volume in the series "Advanced Materials Research" (trans tech publications/ www.ttp.net) (to be confirmed)

Contact

Prof. Dr. Michael Giersig

Helmholtz Centre Berlin for Materials and Energy

Glienicker Str. 100, Berlin D-14109, Germany

Ph: +49 30 8062 2753

e-mail: giersig@helmholtz-berlin.de