Biomedical Applications of Fluorescent Gold Nanotechnologies

Dear Colleagues,

Over the last decade, gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) have proven to be extremely convenient and invaluable tools for biological and biomedical applications. Ultrasmall (<2 nm) gold nanoparticles offer an elegant solution to the need for simple and sensitive diagnostic readouts due to their discrete electronic and molecular-like properties. In this context, fluorescent gold nanoclusters (AuNCs) have attracted much more attention than other metal nanomaterials, which could be easily attributed to their facile preparation, low cytotoxicity, high photostability, good biocompatibility, and ability to be readily functionalized with other biomolecules. Unlike large gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), ultra-small fluorescent AuNCs do not display surface plasmon resonance absorption in the visible region but possess apparent fluorescence emission in the near-infrared (NIR) to visible region. Environmental factors such as pH level, ionic strength, and temperature have significant impacts on their fluorescence properties. Benefitting from these excellent properties, fluorescent AuNPs hold great promise in labeling, biosensing, bioimaging, and targeted cancer therapy applications, in vivo disease monitoring for early diagnosis of cancer, in vivo drug screening and protease activity determination, etc. The purpose of the present Special Issue is to present the latest advances in the field of gold nanoparticles for biomedical applications to improve the diagnosis and pharmacological treatment of several diseases via toxicological considerations of clinically applicable gold nanoparticles. 

Dr. Valérie Marchi
Dr. Pascale Even-Hernandez
Prof. Dr. Jean-Pierre Bazureau
Dr. Olivier Mignen

Guest Editors

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