New material opens the door for deeper biological imaging

A team from the Department of Chemistry has established an approach for the creation of a metal-organic framework material that provides new perspectives for the sensitization of near-infrared luminescent lanthanide ions, including unprecedented possibilities of imaging deeper in tissues for more comprehensive studies of biological systems with light.

Professor Nathaniel Rosi and his team worked with Professor Stephane Petoud, INSERM Research Director for the Center for Molecular Biophysics in France and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Chemistry on the paper, "Ship-in-a-bottle preparation of long wavelength molecular antennae in lanthanide metal-organic frameworks for biological imaging."

The research details the process in which small molecular precursors are loaded into the rigid three-dimensional cavities within lanthanide metal-organic frameworks, where they combine to form a dense array of extended molecular systems that work as an "antennae" that sensitize the lanthanide cations with long wavelengths excitation light. Those long wavelengths activate the near infrared emitting properties of the lanthanide, which may help to create images of areas located more deeply within biological systems.

Rosi also noted the luminescence from lanthanides lasts longer than background radiation in standard biological images, so researchers will have a time advantage when studying lanthanide samples.

We've achieved a system that's sufficiently bright, that we can see using biological imaging in the near infrared. We can also excite it at long wavelengths, up to 600 nanometers which is highly desired so as not to disturb the biological systems."

Professor Nathaniel Rosi

The paper published in April in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Rosi said this novel optical imaging agent will also help researchers detect greater numbers of biological targets from a single experiment than what is possible with current methods.

"Current limitations in imaging allow one to only detect 4 maybe 5 molecules at best in a single imaging experiment. What if we wanted to detect five or six, or 10? There are 14 lanthanide elements across the periodic table. Most of them have very distinct, sharp, luminescent signals. We can potentially make up to 10 optical imaging probes with different lanthanides and be able to detect all of them because they don't have overlapping signals."

Comments

The opinions expressed here are the views of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of News Medical.
Post a new comment
Post

While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. We do not provide medical advice, if you search for medical information you must always consult a medical professional before acting on any information provided.

Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their privacy principles.

Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information.

Read the full Terms & Conditions.

You might also like...
Mitochondria’s division of labor sheds light on how cancer cells survive harsh conditions