<p> Manipulation of single cells and particles is important to biology and nanotechnology. Our electrokinetic (EK) tweezers manipulate objects in simple microfluidic devices using gentle fluid and electric forces under vision-based feedback control. In this dissertation, I detail a user-friendly implementation of EK tweezers that allows users to select, position, and assemble cells and nanoparticles. This EK system was used to measure attachment forces between living breast cancer cells, trap single quantum dots with 45 nm accuracy, build nanophotonic circuits, and scan optical properties of nanowires. With a novel multi-layer microfluidic device, EK was also used to guide single microspheres along complex 3D trajectories. The schemes, software, and methods developed here can be used in many settings to precisely manipulate most visible objects, assemble objects into useful structures, and improve the function of lab-on-a-chip microfluidic systems.</p>

<p> Organic chemistry used to augment nanoparticles and nanotubes, as well as more traditional materials, is a subject of great interest across multiple fields of applied chemistry. Herein we present an example of both nanoparticle and nanotube augmentation with organic small molecules to achieve an enhanced or otherwise infeasible application. The first chapter discusses the modification of two different types of Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) anode brush bristle fibers with positive surface charge increasing moieties to increase quantitative bacterial adhesion to these bristle fibers, and therefore overall MFC electrogenicity. Type-1 brush bristles, comprised of polyacrylonitrile, were modified via the electrostatic attachment of 1-pyrenemethylamine hydrochloride. Type-2 brush bristles, comprised of nylon, were modified via the covalent attachment of ethylenediamine. Both modified brush types were immersed in an <i>E. Coli</i> broth for 1 hour, stained with SYTO^&reg; 9 Green Fluorescent Nucleic Acid Stain from ThermoFisher Scientific (SYTO-9), and examined under a Biotek Citation 3 fluorescent microscope to visually assess differences in bacterial adherence. In both trials, a clear increase in amount of bacterial adhesion to the modified bristles was observed over that of the control. The second chapter demonstrates a potential biomedical technology application wherein a polymerizable carbocyanine-type dye was synthesized and bound to a chitosan backbone to produce a water-soluble photothermal nanoparticle. Laser stimulation of both free and NP-conjugated aqueous solutions of the carbocyanine dye with Near-Infrared (NIR) Spectrum Radiation showed an increase in temperature directly correlated with the concentration of the dye which was more pronounced in the free particle solutions.</p>

Nanoparticles produced with surfaces functionalised by highly specific molecular tags are able to target aberrant cells and detect or eliminate them without causing damage to surrounding healthy tissues. Single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) and RNA which fold to form secondary or tertiary structures, termed aptamers, represent a new class of such molecular tags. The nanoparticles, in turn, may carry therapeutic payload or luminescent entities which enable elimination or visualisation of targeted cells respectively. This project presents fabrication and isolation of a surface-functionalised nanoparticle construct, namely aptamer-tagged silica nanoparticles. DNA aptamers were chosen with the intention to make them useful for clinical or diagnostic applications of targeting neoplastic cells. Indeed, the ssDNA applied here is known to bind mucin-1 which in turn is a biomarker found on the surface of metastatic breast cancer cells. The separation of the construct was made possible by the inclusion of oligonucleotide-bound superparamagnetic particles in the construct; these enabled separation by magnetic capture. This project investigates two approaches to fabrication of the construct. In the first approach, aptamers, oligonucleotides and magnetic particles are mixed in solution. In the second, silica nanoparticles are functionalised with aptamers, oligonucleotides are bound to magnetic particles and the resulting two parts are hybridised together. The first approach gives higher yields. This may suggest that binding of silica nanoparticles to aptamers may hinder aptamer hybridisation to oligonucleotide fragments, thus resulting in lower construct synthesis yields. However, it is not known yet how the yield changes upon addition of silica nanoparticles into the solution. Therefore, the second experimental approach provides a starting point for fabrication and purification of an anti-cancer drug targeting platform in a simple bench-top setting. In addition, this thesis discusses the fabrication of silica nanoparticles which were intended to constitute an element of the construct. The work on nanoparticle fabrication aimed to develop a quick and repeatable synthesis method which would result in monodisperse entities. Despite trying various experimental approaches, suitable particles could not be reproducibly obtained. Agglomeration was identified as a major obstacle in the silica nanoparticle production process. Finally, this project assesses whether the chosen aptamers bind to the metastatic breast cancer cells, which would be necessary if they were to be used for diagnosis or therapy. FACS analysis indeed indicate that ssDNA aptamers attach to the MCF7 cell line, but the optimum conditions for that attachment remain to be determined.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2006. / Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center; full text release delayed at author's request until 2007 Jun 16