Fluorescence in Advanced Bioimaging and Biosensing
Professor Ewa Goldys, Deputy Director Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Nanoscale Biophotonics, Macquarie Univeristy, Sydney, Australia
Fluorescence has become one of the key detection methods in genomics, proteomics and cell biology and biomedical diagnostics. Ultrasensitive fluorescence detection strategy requires bright and stable bioprobes that have high absorption coefficients and high quantum yields and excellent signal to background ratio. Nanoparticles are especially attractive because of their capacity for molecular targeting. In the first part of this talk I will describe our achievements in the development of nanoparticle bioprobes for providing these features. Several strategies were used to improve the detection sensitivity, including time-gating, increasing the density of emitters (nanoruby, upconverting nanoparticles), modification of luminescence properties by plasmonic amplification (Ag@SiO2 nanoparticles with core-shell geometry).
Further, I will discuss our advances in extracting information from endogenous fluorophores in biological systems. Biological cells are very heterogeneous and significant major subpopulations have been uncovered in stem cells, neurons, cancer, immune cells and many other cell types. The understanding of these biochemically and functionally different cell subpopulations will revolutionise biology and medicine. We developed of specialised characterization hardware and analysis tools using autofluorescence hyperspectral imaging able to identify and help select cell populations with different biochemistry, without biochemical interference with these cells. These methods have been applied to a number of cell types including olfactory neuronal cells, adipose-derived stem cells, induced pluripotent stem (IPS) cells, motor neurone disease cells, various cancer cells, embryo and diabetic tissue. We explain how our method responds to commercial and clinical needs across a broad spectrum of medicine and the life sciences.
Finally, I will say a few words about just established major Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Nanoscale Biophotonics which will help advance this research program. This prestigious Centre is funded for the next 7 years at a level of ~ $ 40M and we will be recruiting Centre staff from July 2014. I will discuss employment options, junior and senior fellowship opportunities and potential PhD exchanges.
Professional Profile – Ewa Goldys
Professor Ewa M. Goldys is Deputy Director of the recently established Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Nanoscale Biophotonics ( http://cnbp.wordpress.com/ ) and she holds a Personal Chair in the Department of Physics, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. She is also Director of an interdisciplinary Research Centre “MQ BioFocus” at Macquarie University bringing together over 40 academics and over 100 early career researchers and students.
Her research spans the interface of materials science, photonics and biotechnology where she is drawing on her earlier achievements ultrasensitive optical characterisation. A portfolio of her works centred on the development and understanding of luminescence emission in doped nanocrystals where she developed advanced methods of synthesis and characterisation of fluorescent nanoparticles for applications in fluorescence labelling. He expertise in ultrasensitive optical characterisation and nanotechnology led to the development of novel approaches to biochemical and medical sensing and diagnostics, documented in numerous publications. Work in progress focuses on label-free non-invasive high content cellular imaging and characterisation of cell subpopulations and on nanoparticle chemical sensors.
She published over 200 refereed publications and a similar number of conference presentations as well as edited a book “Fluorescence Applications in Biotechnology and Life Sciences”(Wiley , 2009)