Methods of optically marking and sorting adherent cells are provided. The methods include providing a plurality of adherent cells attached to a substrate, each adherent cell of the plurality of adherent cells having an optical marker. The methods also include selectively applying light energy to a subset of the plurality of adherent cells, and detaching the plurality of adherent cells from the substrate. These methods also provide the sorting of the plurality of adherent cells.

Simple organic structures, organic/inorganic polymers, and other substrates have been made, all of which have at least one pyrrolidone moiety present, and found to exhibit low toxicity, low complement activation features and may be used to reduce protein interactions with drug conjugates while enhancing in vivo residency times for these conjugates when used as an injectable composition; thus these compounds can be used as substitutes for PEG in PEGylation. Surprisingly, these compounds also exhibit unique intrinsic fluorescence (IF) or non-traditional fluorescence (NTF) properties that currently cannot be explained by traditional photochemistry and fluorescence paradigms are described. These compounds have a variety of applications such as in cellular imaging, gene transfection, bio-diagnostics, biosensing, fluorescence directed surgical resections, drug delivery, forensics, environmental diagnostics, mineral/gemstone characterization, counterfeit goods detection, tracer studies related to liquid/water flow, oil field enhancements and diagnostics, prevention of photo-bleaching, and LED display enhancements and others.

The present invention relates to a nanocarrier for targeted therapy and/or diagnosis of a prostate cancer cell, the nanocarrier including a micelle including a phosphate surfactant represented by a specific Chemical Formula. The micelle including the phosphate surfactant constituting the nanocarrier for targeted therapy and/or diagnosis of the prostate cancer cell according to the present invention is cleaved by the overexpressed enzyme in the vicinity of the prostate cancer cell, so that therapeutic agent or diagnostic agent particles loaded on the micelle are capable of being selectively released to the prostate cancer cell. Therefore, it is possible to maximize the therapeutic and/or diagnostic effects while remarkably reducing the side effects of the drug in the living body compared to a conventional technology.

Methods of optically marking and sorting adherent cells are provided. The methods include providing a plurality of adherent cells attached to a substrate, each adherent cell of the plurality of adherent cells having an optical marker. The methods also include selectively applying light energy to a subset of the plurality of adherent cells, and detaching the plurality of adherent cells from the substrate. These methods also provide the sorting of the plurality of adherent cells.

A method is provided for deep tissue imaging using multi-photon excitation of a fluorescent agent. The fluorescent agent is irradiated with an ultrafast laser to produce an excited singlet state (S.sub.n) which subsequently undergoes non-radiative relaxation to a first singlet state (S.sub.1). The S.sub.1 state undergoes fluorescence to the ground state S.sub.0 to produce an emission wavelength. Both the excitation and emission wavelengths are within the near infrared optical window, thereby permitting deep tissue penetration for both the incoming and outgoing signals.

Disclosed are monoacylated Toll-like receptor 2 ligands which can be used in both the development of targeted agents for the imaging and treatment of pancreatic cancer as well as other cancers, and as an adjuvant for cancer immunotherapy. The monoacylated compounds disclosed herein have a higher binding affinity for TLR2 relative to a known potent diacylated agonists, but only the bioactivity. Competition of the monoacylated compound with the diacylated compound for binding TLR2 was confirmed. Hence, the reported monoacylated compounds are inhibitors/antagonists of TLR2 activation.

Disclosed is a method of non-invasive infrared imaging, comprising (a) administering a composition containing infrared-emitting particles which contain rare earth elements that emit in the short-wavelength infrared (SWIR) spectrum, where the particles are encapsulated with a biocompatible matrix to form downconverting encapsulated particles; and (b) irradiating with infrared radiation, where both excitation and emission spectra of the encapsulated particles are in the infrared region. Analogous methods of image-guided biomedical intervention, and drug tracking and delivery are also disclosed. Also disclosed is a composition for biomedical applications, containing infrared-emitting particles which contain rare earth-elements that emit in the short-wavelength infrared (SWIR) spectrum, where the particles are encapsulated with a biocompatible matrix to form downconverting encapsulated particles.

Provided herein are transmitter ligands that improve photon upconversion of near infrared light (NIR) to visible light. The presently provided ligands are complexed to semiconductor nanocrystals and improve triplet energy transfer from semiconductor nanocrystal to annihilator in triplet-triplet annihilation. Suitable applications include bio-imaging.

A functionalized diblock copolymer having the chemical structure shown in Formula I. The functionalized diblock copolymer or polymer particles can be widely used in tumor imaging, tumor therapy and other fields. It not only has good safety, realizes faster and adjustable degradation and removal of polymers (by changing the structure and number of functional groups) under acidic conditions, but also has excellent specific and high-quality imaging effects at the target site, with high signal-to-noise ratio, clear boundaries, long half-life, etc., which solves the problem of fluorescence imaging technology in real-time intraoperative navigation, and thus has a good industrialization prospect.

Disclosed is a method of non-invasive infrared imaging, comprising (a) administering a composition containing infrared-emitting particles which contain rare earth elements that emit in the short-wavelength infrared (SWIR) spectrum, where the particles are encapsulated with a biocompatible matrix to form downconverting encapsulated particles; and (b) irradiating with infrared radiation, where both excitation and emission spectra of the encapsulated particles are in the infrared region. Analogous methods of image-guided biomedical intervention, and drug tracking and delivery are also disclosed. Also disclosed is a composition for biomedical applications, containing infrared-emitting particles which contain rare earth-elements that emit in the short-wavelength infrared (SWIR) spectrum, where the particles are encapsulated with a biocompatible matrix to form downconverting encapsulated particles.