The Design and Engineering of Materials From Nanoscale to Microscale for the Optical and Biomedical Applications

Soojeong Cho

Clinical Research Associate- Department of Radiology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Understanding, control, and reconstructing of materials in size from nanoscale to microscale link the various fields of research and techniques for the advances and innovation in the application perspectives. This talk will explore the strategies of material designs and characterizations to control the sizes, morphologies, compositions, and properties for the optical and biomedical applications in particular. Here, inorganic, organic, and metal nanoparticles are synthesized for the different purposes: 1) highly monodisperse silica nanoparticles with various sizes are prepared for self-assembled nanostructures with RGB reflective colors, 2) melanin nanoparticles are applied by utilizing their original properties with metal chelation and photothermal transduction for MR-guided photothermal therapy, and with the size dependent color generation for anti-counterfeit micropatterning, and 3) gold/silver bimetallic nanoparticles with diverse morphologies are prepared for CT imaging and radiotherapy with their inherent radiopaque and radiosensitizing properties. Furthermore, fabrication of microstructures in the specially designed microfluidic channels lead to control the size, length, and compartments of structures in the microscale for biomolecular sensing and tissue engineering.