Photothermal conversion effect, that thermal energy is produced by photoexcitation of plasmonic nanoparticles which absorb light, is considered as a promising tool in cellular and molecular manipulations due to the controllability of local temperature. Therefore, it has been widely applied to biological studies such as controlling cellular behavior, biologics delivery, and biomolecular detection. In this presentation, we propose a novel method for directed cell positioning and photothermally-enhanced drug delivery to the cells by using patterned plasmonic substrates. We first fabricate plasmonic circle arrays composed of gold nanorods (GNRs) and poly-L-lysine by simple microcontact printing and optimize them for guided cell positioning on the circle patterns. Then, we further utilize the photothermal conversion effect from the patterned GNRs to facilitate the targeted temporal and spatial delivery of the drugs into the cells. When the resonant near infrared light is illuminated to the GNRs’ pattern, drug uptake is dramatically enhanced compared with non-illumination condition. We expect that this study provides a new way to enhance molecular delivery into the target cell.

Directed cell positioning and photothermally enhanced drug delivery on patterned gold nanorods

2019 Fall National Meeting

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