Use of upconverting fluorescent nanoparticles for bioimaging

Abstract

Lanthanide doped nanocrystals with upconversion fluorescence emission have been synthesized. The surface of these nanocrystals are modified to render them water dispersible and biocompatible. Use of these nanocrystals for bioimaging introduces many advantages, for example, minimum photo-damage to biological samples, weak auto-fluorescence, high detection sensitivity, high light penetration depth, etc. Here, we use upconversion nanocrystals to label cancer cells and demonstrate confocal imaging of the labeled cells implanted in mouse muscle. © 2012 SPIE.