Research Projects

Chiral gold nanoparticles (ch-NPs) have garnered significant interest due to their unique optical properties arising from their geometry and chirality. These features make them ideal for advanced applications in sensing, bioimaging, and theranostics. Ch-NPs exhibit strong circular dichroism in the visible-NIR region, offering superior sensitivity and specificity over achiral counterparts—particularly in enantioselective detection. By engineering chiral plasmonic nanostructures with rattle-like morphology in diverse shapes and sizes, their optical and electromagnetic behavior can be fine-tuned to enhance Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) intensity and photoacoustic (PA) signal strength. Notably, the influence of chirality on photothermal properties remains underexplored and forms a key component of this investigation. A key challenge in cancer surgery is accurately distinguishing tumor margins from healthy tissue. Conventional imaging methods lack sufficient depth and contrast, whereas photoacoustic (PA) imaging offers superior resolution and penetration. Efficient PA contrast agents are vital for improving image-guided surgery and early diagnosis. In this context, we propose the development of a library of chiral nanorattles (ch-NRTs) for integrated SERS sensing and theranostic applications. These plasmonic nanostructures exhibit stronger optical absorption than biological tissues, enabling high imaging contrast and photothermal conversion. The proposed ch-NRTs are well-suited for dual-mode bioimaging and phototherapy, addressing limitations in depth-resolved detection and selective tumor ablation. We hypothesize that incorporating chirality into gold NRTs will significantly enhance their SERS activity and photothermal efficiency. Functionalization with red blood cell membranes (RBCm) is expected to confer biocompatibility, prolonged circulation, and structural stability, while enabling ligand insertion for tumor targeting. Together, these features make ch-NRTs promising candidates for high-performance, non-invasive cancer diagnosis and therapy. The nanorattles will be synthesized via seed-mediated growth, followed by silver coating and galvanic replacement to form hollow core-shell structures. Chirality will be induced using biomolecules like cysteine, glutathione, penicillamine, and carnitine to create morphologically diverse ch-NRTs (capsules, spheres, cubes, tetrahedrons). These structures will feature electromagnetic hotspots within the shell's nanogaps, enhancing signal-to-noise ratios and tissue penetration in NIR-SERS and photothermal settings. The evolution of their morphology in response to surfactants and halide ions will be studied via simulations, and electromagnetic field distributions modeled using FDTD analysis. The synthesized ch-NRTs will be employed in SERS-based detection of trace analytes, both chemical and biological. Subsequently, they will be coated with RBCm to form biomimetic ch-NRT-RBCm hybrids. The RBCm coating creates a hydrophobic barrier that resists serum protein adsorption, reduces surface energy, and preserves nanostructure integrity—thereby stabilizing optical properties and enhancing in vivo performance. This strategy also enables attachment of targeting ligands for selective tumor localization. By combining chiral plasmonic design with biomimetic surface engineering, the proposed work offers a dual-functional nanoplatform for deep-tissue bioimaging and localized photothermal therapy. The ch-NRT-RBCm system addresses critical challenges in cancer diagnostics, enhances imaging precision, and enables non-invasive therapeutic intervention. Preliminary data already demonstrate successful synthesis of chiral plasmonic nanocapsules, supporting the feasibility of this approach. This interdisciplinary effort integrates nanotechnology, photonics, and cancer biology, and is expected to yield impactful outcomes for both fundamental research and translational biomedical applications.