Advanced nanomaterials for biomedical applications.

摘要

The advancement of scientific research has paved the way for novel nanometer sized materials which could potentially be used in a variety of applications. The use of the advanced nanomaterials in the health sciences field helps not only in improving the current technologies for disease diagnosis and drug delivery but could also revolutionize the field of medicine.;This thesis describes the use of two such advanced nanomaterials for use in drug delivery applications. Silica colloidal crystals have shown the promise of creating photonic crystals, but little is known about them in the medical field. In this thesis, the use of silica colloidal crystals for localized delivery of DNA into monolayer culture of cells using a collagen-virus matrix is described. This novel technique described here has shown gradual time dependent as well as localized delivery of DNA (embedded in a virus) into cells without apparent cytotoxicity to far away cells. This powerful delivery mechanism could be used in reducing the repetitive use of drug doses as well as side effects to the neighboring cells and tissues.;Carbon nanotubes have shown immense potential as novel nanomaterials which could be have applications in practically every field of science. Single walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) have been studied for their interesting optical and electrical properties. The study of their biological properties has led to their use as novel platforms for delivery of various biomolecules into living systems. This thesis discusses the optical and biological properties of the SWNTs. Dispersion of SWNTs in single stranded DNA (ss-DNA) is done to individually separate them, which is needed to study the optical properties of the SWNTs. Optical characterization techniques such as absorbance and photoluminescence were performed on SWNTs:ss-DNA samples, which revealed that ss-DNA excellently disperses SWNTs in aqueous solution. The results showing the SWNTs transporting ssDNA into fibroblast cells are also presented. This forms the basis for the further studies involving SWNTs and their applications in drug delivery mechanisms.