Development of Two-Photon Microscopy for Nanoparticle Imaging

Team: Dr. Chunqiang Li & Christian Honsaker

Engineered nanoparticles (NPs), such as gold, silver and zinc oxide (ZnO), are used in a variety of applications such as biomedical imaging, ceramics, paints, batteries, fuel cell materials, and agricultural products. The potential effect of these NPs on the environment is a concern and is being actively studied. The Biophotonics group in the Physics Department at UTEP has conducted research on the distribution of ZnO NPs in root and leaf tissues using confocal microscopy, a technique commonly used to study the uptake of dye-stained NPs by cell culture. The goal of this project is to use a newly developed two-photon microscope to image NPs in cellular and plant tissues. Compared with confocal microscopy, two-photon microscopy has the advantages of reduced photo-damage, deeper penetration depth, and finer resolution. It has been mainly used for imaging fluorescent molecules and nanoparticles in biomedical research. In this project the STEM-RTI fellow will work closely with graduate students and postdoctoral researchers to set up a custom-designed two-photon microscope and study the uptake, transport, and accumulation of NPs in corn root tissues. Nanoparticles and tissue samples will be obtained from collaborating faculty in the Chemistry and Biology Departments at UTEP.

The STEM-RTI fellow will be expected to develop a laboratory module involving the new microscope for the Advanced Physics Laboratory course (PHYS 3243). Through this module, the students who take this course will learn the principles behind the operation of a two-photon microscope and the concepts behind nonlinear optics, perform basic operations of the microscope, measure the fluorescence intensity of nanoparticles in corn-root tissue as well as several types of live cells As this is an interdisciplinary teaching module, physics, chemistry and biology majors will benefit.

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