Teri Odom1
Northwestern University1
Nanoparticles are advantageous as drug delivery vehicles, imaging probes, and therapeutic agents. However, direct visualization of how engineered nanoparticles bind to specific organelles or cellular components has been limited. This talk will describe how drug-loaded gold nanostars—with structural and molecular valency—can function as exquisite optical probes to interrogate how activated nanoconstructs interact with cell membranes. We will discuss model systems that can be used to visualize how gold nanostar nanoconstructs target receptors on cell membranes, rotate and translate on the plasma membrane, are endocytosed, and are trafficked intracellularly. Finally, we will describe how the 3D anisotropic nanoparticle shape can avoid deleterious protein-corona effects and maintain the targeting activity of the surface ligands. The critical role of shape has important implications for cell membrane receptor binding and downstream cell signaling.