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Applications of nanomaterials in modern medicine

  • Life, New Materials and Plasmonics
  • Published:
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Abstract

Nanomaterials represent a class of materials based on nanoscale structures. Nanomaterials are currently used in a wide variety of applications, including, optoelectronics, energy conversion, biology health care and medicine. Among different types of nanomaterials, gold nanoparticles have received considerable attention in disease diagnosis and therapy due to their optical and chemical properties (Liz-Marzan in Mater Today 7:26–31, 2004). This paper reports the main optical and photo-thermal properties of gold nanoparticles. Particularly, we show that gold nanorods embedded in cholesteric liquid crystals demonstrate to control the “selective reflection” of a light beam. Investigation of the optical properties of the obtained material reveals an original and efficient tool to detect temperature variations at the nanoscale useful for photo-thermal based therapies applications. Finally, the concept of ‘nanoparticle-protein corona interaction can be exploited for application ranging from regenerative medicine to theranostics.

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Acknowledgments

The research is supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), U.S. Air Force, under grant FA9550-14-1-0050 (P.I. L. De Sio, EOARD 2014/2015) and the Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, AFRL; by 2011 - prot. 2010C4R8M8 and 2012 prot. 2012T9XHH7 PRIN Projects. Fundings have been generously provided to GC by the “Futuro in Ricerca 2008” program funded by the Italian Minister for University and Research (grant no. RBFR08TLPO) and by the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Center for Life Nano Science@Sapienza.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Beam Engineering for Advanced Measurements Company, Winter Park, FL, 32789, USA

    Luciano De Sio

  2. Dipartimento di Medicina Molecolare, Sapienza Università di Roma, Viale Regina Elena 291, 00161, Rome, Italy

    Giulio Caracciolo & Daniela Pozzi

  3. Università degli Studi di Bari, Dip. Chimica, Via Orabona 4, 70126, Bari, Italy

    Tiziana Placido & Angela Agostiano

  4. CNR-IPCF Istituto per i Processi Chimici e Fisici, Sez, Bari, c/o Dip. Chimica Via Orabona 4, 70126, Bari, Italy

    Roberto Comparelli, Maria Lucia Curri & Angela Agostiano

  5. CNR-IPCF UOS, Arcavacata Di Rende, 87036, Cosenza, Italy

    Ferdinanda Annesi & Roberto Bartolino

  6. Department of Physics, University of Calabria Centre of Excellence for the Study of Innovative Functional Materials, Arcavacata Di Rende, 87036, Cosenza, Italy

    Roberto Bartolino

  7. Centro Linceo of the National Academy dei Lincei, Rome, Italy

    Roberto Bartolino

Authors
  1. Luciano De Sio
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  2. Giulio Caracciolo
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  3. Tiziana Placido
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  4. Daniela Pozzi
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  5. Roberto Comparelli
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  6. Ferdinanda Annesi
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  7. Maria Lucia Curri
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  8. Angela Agostiano
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  9. Roberto Bartolino
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Luciano De Sio.

Additional information

This contribution is the written, peer-reviewed version of a paper presented at one of the two conferences “From Life to Life: Through New Materials and Plasmonics” Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei in Rome on June 23, 2014, and “NanoPlasm 2014: New Frontiers in Plasmonics and NanoOptics” Cetraro (CS) on June 16-20, 2014.

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De Sio, L., Caracciolo, G., Placido, T. et al. Applications of nanomaterials in modern medicine. Rend. Fis. Acc. Lincei 26 (Suppl 2), 231–237 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12210-015-0400-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12210-015-0400-y

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