Porous Silicon Nanomaterials for Biomedical Applications
Porous silicon (pSi) is a form of the chemical element silicon that has introduced nanopores in its microstructures. pSi had shown great potential for biological applications such as sensors, contrast agents, drug-delivery systems, and theragnostics. In addition, porous silicon nanoparticle (pSiNP) exhibits a number of properties that make it attractive: (i) Non-toxic and biodegradable. Under biological conditions, pSiNPs degrade into orthosilicic acid (Si(OH)4), a water-soluble product that can be easily cleared by the renal system, (ii) High drug loading efficiency by porous silicon-silicate frame-sheath formation and substrate trapping mechanism with no damage to sensitive protein drugs; (iii) Controlled release (short-/long-term) or loaded substrate, (vi) Intrinsic near-infrared photoluminescence, (v) enhancer for photoacoustic contrast agents, and (v) Convenient surface modification to introduce organ targeting moieties.
In this talk, speaker will present his multidisciplinary research experiences with key results using pSi nanomaterials to probing disease-associated biological process, bio-imaging of biomarkers, and drug-delivery system.