On the 29th of January we were fortunate to have Charlotte Fletcher, from Warwick University, give a talk on Superparamagnetic Iron Oxide Nanoparticles, she began by explaining what a nanoparticle was and giving us a concept of the size through comparative examples, including a nanoscale.
A nanoparticle is between 1 and 100 nm in diameter, and their properties depend on their size. As they are so small, they have a large surface area to volume ratio. For nanoparticles to be useful in a biological application, they need to be biocompatible, they need to have a controllable size, and the ability to be functionalised. There are many uses for nanoparticles:
She discussed the reasoning behind the SPIONs having an iron oxide core with a silica (silicon dioxide) coating. Without the silica coating, the iron oxide nanoparticles would be cytotoxic, cause cell elongation and an increase in cell death. You can functionalise SPIONs by attaching things onto their surface, such as amine groups, other functional groups, fluorescent dye, PEGylation (polyethylene glycol polymer chains), and polymers. SPIONS can be inserted into cells using a micropipette. This means we can use nanoparticles to target biomolecules in a cell. We were shown a video where nanoparticles had been attached onto strands of DNA on a microscope slide, and due to the magnetic properties of the nanoparticles, the DNA stands moved when exposed to a magnetic force.
Mrs Fletcher is currently researching the long-term effects of nanoparticles on cells, the ability to target specific regions of cells, and the addition of functional polymers that are both MRI contrast agents (that increase visibility of internal body structures) and provide drug delivery. Thank you to everyone that attended this talk, and to Mrs Fletcher for coming to speak to us. The talk was incredibly interesting, and we all enjoyed it. (The information and images in this blog post come from a presentation that Mrs Fletcher used.)
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