Smartphones are now ubiquitous, and are more common than clean drinking water in some developing countries and remote communities. Where healthcare resources are limited, there is a need for diagnostic tools that are both inexpensive and readily available. Fluorescent polymer nanoparticles – termed polymer dots, or Pdots, have recently been shown to have sufficient brightness to be visible by a smartphone camera for fluoresence-based assays. In this lecture, the design and synthesis of new multifunctional Pdot probes for use in bioanalysis as diagnostic tools will be described. Pdots with near-infrared fluorescence capable of selective binding to breast cancer cells suitable for imaging in the biological transparency window (650 – 1350 nm) will be demonstrated. New Pdot technologies taing advantage of thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) for time-gated imaging will also be described, allowing one to eliminate background fluorescence from biological tissues or secondary dyes. We will also show how single-chain polymer nanoparticles (SCPNs) can be used to give Pdots that can deliver a targeted drug payload with high specificity. Deep-red fluorescent polymer dots functionalized with a cell-penetrating peptide mimic will also be described, capable of entering a variety of mammalian cells with low cytotoxicity for time-gated imaging.

Luminescent polymer nanoparticles for diagnostics and imaging

Fall 2022 abstracts, posters, and presentations will launch in mid-September.

ACS Fall 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.