Nanophotonics and Biosensing Laboratory

The laboratory develops nanophotonics‑based methods for noninvasive sensing and imaging in highly scattering media, with a primary focus on biological tissues, tumors, and vascular pathology. By engineering gold nanorods, nanospheres, carbon dots, and nanodiamonds as optical contrast agents and combining them with diffusion‑reflection, polarization, and fluorescence‑lifetime techniques, the lab creates sensitive tools for deep‑tissue diagnostics and quantitative bioimaging.

Key capabilities

Advanced diffusion‑reflection platforms for deep‑tissue sensing
- Design of reflection‑based measurement systems that extract absorption and scattering coefficients from turbid media up to centimeter depths, enabling label‑free and nanoparticle‑enhanced readouts of tissue state.
- Quantitative modeling of light transport in layered tissue phantoms and in vivo settings to detect subtle optical changes associated with disease.
Nanoparticle‑enhanced cancer detection
- Development of gold‑nanorod and gold‑nanoparticle contrast agents targeted to tumor biomarkers such as EGFR, allowing mapping of tumor margins, subcutaneous tumors, and microscopic disease using diffusion‑reflection, airSEM, and combined optical modalities.
- Polarization‑ and wavelength‑resolved reflection measurements that distinguish flowing versus tumor‑accumulated nanorods, enabling label‑free detection of angiogenesis and tumor blood‑supply changes.
Molecular imaging and multimodal optical readouts
- Integration of diffusion‑reflection with fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM), anisotropy, and correlation spectroscopy to obtain complementary surface and deep‑tissue information from fluorophore‑conjugated nanoparticles.
- Use of metal‑enhanced fluorescence, lifetime shortening, and anisotropy changes to sensitively report nanoparticle localization and local microenvironment.
Targeted vascular and immune‑cell sensing
- Application of gold nanorods as absorption contrast agents to detect early atherosclerotic lesions, exploiting macrophage uptake in unstable plaques and differentiating injured from healthy arteries in vivo.
- Nanorod‑based scattering and differential‑uptake strategies for label‑free discrimination of macrophage subtypes (M1/M2) via flow cytometry, opening routes to optical immunophenotyping of inflammatory states.
Transdermal and skin‑barrier nanobiophotonics
- Phase‑analysis and diffusion‑based profiling of nanodiamond and nanoparticle permeation through skin, enabling quantitative assessment of transdermal delivery and barrier integrity in ex vivo models.
pH‑sensitive and enhanced bioimaging probes
- Design of polyethylenimine‑coated carbon dots and gold‑nanoparticle hybrids for ratiometric pH sensing, metal‑enhanced emission, and high‑contrast cellular imaging in complex biological environments.

Applications

Oncology: Noninvasive detection of subcutaneous and mucosal tumors, intraoperative mapping of tumor margins in squamous cell carcinoma, and monitoring of nanoparticle‑based therapies using diffusion‑reflection, airSEM, and polarization signatures.
Cardiovascular and vascular disease: Early identification of macrophage‑rich, unstable atherosclerotic plaques and arterial injury by tracking nanorod‑loaded macrophages in vivo, with validation against CT and histology.
Immunology and inflammation: Optical stratification of macrophage phenotypes via nanorod scattering and flow‑cytometric readouts, supporting research into fibrosis, cancer microenvironments, and inflammatory disorders.
Dermatology and drug delivery: Quantitative imaging of nanoparticle transport across skin for evaluating topical formulations, nanocarrier design, and safety.
Multimodal bioimaging: Combined use of DR, FLIM, anisotropy, and phase‑sensitive methods to generate spectroscopic “fingerprints” of nanoparticle–tissue interactions for research and future clinical systems.

Representative algorithms, systems, and tools

Diffusion‑reflection analysis pipelines that convert spatially resolved reflectance profiles into quantitative absorption and scattering maps, optimized for gold‑nanorod and nanosphere contrast.
Polarization‑ and wavelength‑resolved detection schemes that compare resonance and off‑resonance responses of plasmonic nanorods to infer blood‑flow patterns and tumor accumulation.
Multimodal DR–FLIM imaging workflow for solid phantoms and tissue, integrating lifetime fitting, anisotropy mapping, and nanoparticle‑enhanced reflectance for multimodal contrast.
Flow‑cytometry protocols and analysis methods that use red‑channel scattering from unlabeled nanorods to quantify macrophage subtype uptake with high sensitivity.

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