Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on

Nanostructures (ICNS4)

Invited Papers

12-14 March 2012, Kish Island, I.R. Iran

INV 15

A Brief Review of the Biomedical Applications of the

Existing Nano Tools with Single Cell Resolution
Kambiz Pourezzaei
School of Biomedical Engineering, Science & Health Systems, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Typical human cells are of the order of a few microns. Nano tools have the ideal dimensions for monitoring, imaging and sensing the
intracellular structure, dynamics and biochemistry with a single cell resolution. With these tools, potentially, we should be able to investigate why among a cell aggregate of the same kind some cells would react to a stressful stimuli and some do not, some become cancerous
and some remain normal. another possible application of these tools is in the area of stem cell study. One can think of using these tools
to study the dynamics of the cell differentiation during the growth of an aggregate of stem cells. Sensing of the pre-apoptosis precursors
is another application.
In this talk I will present the fabrication of silver nanoparticle coated nano optical fiber. We used these fiber nano probes as surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrates in the shape of tapered optical fiber tips. The tip diameters were in the 25-40 nm range. These
nano tips were inserted into live cells and then once they were pull out we obtained the SERS spectra from them. Our preliminary study
shows reasonable cell survival. This study also shows the potential of these nano probes for studying the reaction of single cell or viruses
to various biological stresses.
In addition in this talk we will briefly discus other nano probes such as quantum dots (QD) and nano pipette. We have used quantum dots
for the identification of some of the inflammatory biomarkers in an animal model.
The nano pipette can be utilized for extraction of samples from inside of a single cell. a process here we call it Nano Biopsy. Then the
extracted sample can be tested off-line using traditional tools.

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Abstract Book |INST| Sharif University of Technology| 

Invited Papers

Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on

Nanostructures (ICNS4)

12-14 March 2012, Kish Island, I.R. Iran

Raw, unprocessed SERS spectrum obtained from the probe inserted in the Phoenix cell.
The insets shows the image collected under a phase contrast illumination viewed by the
40X objective with the SERS nanoprobe inside a single cell.

References:
1. Pourrezaei et al., Proceeding, Focus on Microscopy 2004. http://www.biomed.drexel.edu/BioNano/Contents/pourrezaei/FOM_2004
2. Pourrezaei et al., Journal of Microscopy, Vol. 222, Pt 1 april 2006, pp. 2227.
3. Advanced Environmental, Chemical, and Biological Sensing Technologies VIII(Proceedings of SPIE), Editors:Tuan Vo-Dinh, Robert
Lieberman, Gnter Gauglitz, Published:09 May 2011

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Abstract Book |INST| Sharif University of Technology|

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