The effects of laser exposure of gold nanoparticles in neuronal cells

The use of gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) in biological applications has risen significantly over recent years. With the wide variety of chemical and biological functionalisation available and their distinctive optical properties, Au NPs are currently applied in a range of biological applications including sensing, labelling, drug delivery and imaging. Amongst the available particles, gold nanorods (Au NRs) are particularly useful because their distinct localised surface plasmon resonances (LSPR) in the longitudinal direction is tunable across the visible to near infrared region. This thesis demonstrates that illumination of Au NRs at the plasmon resonance wavelength can trigger neuronal cell differentiation and induce intracellular calcium transients (Ca2+) in NG108 - 15 neuronal cells. These effects were also observed in polystyrene sulphonate - (PSS) and silica (SiO2) - coated Au NRs. In addition, initial studies on fluorescent thermometry in biological tissue showed the potential to measure temperature with pixel by pixel resolution.