Imaging and measurement of nanoparticles in biological media such as cells and tissues
The interaction of nanoparticles with cells and tissues in biologically media is an area of great importance, especially given the rapid growth in the development of both new types of engineered nanoparticles and novel applications of those nanoparticles.
This is a topic of huge interest to nanotoxicologists for in invitro investigations of toxicity and for applications such as the medical use of nanoparticles for the targeted delivery of pharmaceuticals to specific cells or tissues in the body. Therefore, there is a need to characterise nanoparticle uptake on a cellular level after they are administered.
NPL has developed in-house capabilities to disperse, measure and characterise nanoparticles reproducibly. NPL also has a suite of nanoscale imaging techniques to enable the detection of nanoparticles in biologically related media and identify properties that are expected to be effect-related in biological environments. NPL has a substantial programme of research to develop a range of tools to allow the invitro quantification of key parameters such as size distribution, agglomeration, electrochemical changes around nanoparticles in cells, interaction forces between nanoparticles and biomolecules and measurement of protein corona.
Capabilities include:
- Microscopy facilities: general light microscopy, confocal microscopy, SEM, TEM, fluorescence microscopy, scanning probe microscopy (e.g. FM)
- TERS, SICM, SECM nanoscale imaging spectroscopy techniques
- Investigation of nanoparticle-protein interactions
- Photon force microscopy for measurement of the interaction force between nanoparticles and biomolecules
Contact
Customer Services tel: +44 20 8943 8637
E-mail: nanoparticles_enquiries@npl.co.uk