Development of Gold Nanorod NIR Active Surfaces for Human Mesenchymal Stem Cell Detachment

Enzymatic and non-enzymatic cell detachment solutions in therapeutic industries has many short comings, including being derived from animal/human pancreatic enzymes, cleaving of cell surface proteins leading to disrupted of cell functions and cell death when exposed for longer time period. Surface-plasmons generated by irradiating surface bound gold nanostructures with near infra-red light can mediate non-toxic cell detachment. In collaboration with St. Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne Australia I have developing a new gold nanorods based coating for 2D substrates and 3D microcarriers, in order to develop biomaterials suitable for stem cell detachment on a clinically relevant scale.