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Darwish, Ghinwa H.

University of British Columbia

Photoluminescent nanoparticles (NPs) are promising materials for bioanalysis and imaging applications, offering many potential advantages versus conventional fluorescent dyes. With a full understanding of material properties and suitable chemistries, photoluminescent NPs are able to enhance sensitivity, increase multicolour capabilities, enable tracking over longer periods, and improve the analytical performance of portable devices. However, gaps remain in understanding the photophysical properties of many photoluminescent NPs and there are unresolved challenges in their optimization and application. This thesis presents original research that advances the development of brightly photoluminescent nanoparticles (NPs) toward applications in bioanalysis and imaging. Materials of interest include quantum dots (QDs), polymer dots (Pdots), supra-QDs, and super-QDs, which are studied at the ensemble and especially the single-particle levels. Fundamental research objectives include better understanding the photophysical properties of these materials, as in the cases of studying the complexing photobleaching behaviour of Pdots and demonstrating a new approach for the selective immobilization of single QDs via tetrameric antibody complexes and affinity tag peptides. Applied research objectives include the development and characterization of ultra-bright supra-QDs and super-QDs for cellular immunolabeling and imaging, particularly with smartphone-based devices for cytometry. A set of red-green-blue (RGB) composite colours of supra-QD is devised for the latter and shown to be able to enable double-digit levels of multiplexing via support vector machine (SVM) algorithms for machine learning. Overall, this thesis significantly contributes to the understanding and applications of luminescent NPs. It will impact the design and optimization of these materials, the lab-based applications of these materials, and future technologies for point-of-care/need (POC/N) diagnostics enabled by these materials. Prospective outcomes include improved imaging and detection tools for biomedical research and technologies that support more accessible and equitable health care.

Text

2024-09-30

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/85641

Chemistry

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/