Functional Nanomaterial for Photo-based Theranostics

Project summary

Phototherapy, include PTT and PDT, is a promising strategy for tumor treatment due to its selective and localized therapeutic effect under light irradiation. The growth of nanotechnology in the field of biomedicine and clinical theranostics presents versatile opportunities to photo-based theranositics by integrating multiple functionalities in a unified nanoparticle. This project will create novel nanomaterials for the optical imaging guided tumor phototherapy. With such a nanoplatform, the nanoparticle will be engineered specifically for tumor homing. Together with the controlled light irradiation, the tumor will be selectively killed without causing damage to normal tissue in dark. In addition, rich photophysical properties of the prepared nanoparticles will enable monitoring of tumor treatment progress and assessing the therapeutic efficiency through optical bioimaging. The research works will include: 1) development of nanomaterials for PTT; 2) functional nanomaterials for PDT; 3) nanomaterials for phototriggered combined therapy.