IPM using Plasmonic Nanoparticles

  • We develop metal nanoparticles to label targets of interest in cells.
  • The nanoparticles are excited by a laser with a wavelength which suits their peak plasmonic resonance, and thus creates phase signatures that can be detected by IPM.
  •   Application: Alzheimer’s Disease (AD):

    • Functionalizing the nanoparticles to bind amyloid beta, created during AD.
    • Imaging it in 3-D using photothermal optical coherence microscopy (OCM).
    • Simultaneously imaging neurons by wide-field IPM and checking how they are affected by amyloid beta presence.

     

    Photothermal IPM System
     

    Phase of 55-nm gold nanospheres,
    detected by wide-field photothermal IPM

     
    Project funded by the German-Israeli Foundation (GIF)