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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Yen Nee Tan
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Biomolecule‐templated or biotemplated metal nanoclusters (NCs) are ultrasmall (<2 nm) metal (Au, Ag) particles stabilized by a certain type of biomolecular template (e.g., peptides, proteins, and DNA). Due to their unique physiochemical properties, biotemplated metal NCs have been widely used in sensing, imaging, delivery and therapy. The overwhelming applications in these individual areas imply the great promise of harnessing biotemplated metal NCs in more advanced biomedical aspects such as theranostics. Although applications of biotemplated metal NCs as theranostic agents are trending, the rational design of biomolecular templates suitable for the synthesis of multifunctional metal NCs for theranostics is comparatively underexplored. This progress report first identifies the essential attributes of biotemplated metal NCs for theranostics by reviewing the state‐of‐art applications in each of the four modalities of theranostics, namely sensing, imaging, delivery and therapy. To achieve high efficacy in these modalities, we elucidate the design principles underlying the use of biomolecules (proteins, peptides and nucleic acids) to control the NC size, emission color and surface chemistries for post‐functionalization of therapeutic moieties. We then propose a unified strategy to engineer biomolecular templates that combine all these modalities to produce multifunctional biotemplated metal NCs that can serve as the next‐generation personalized theranostic agents.
Author(s): Yu Y, Mok BYL, Loh XJ, Tan YN
Publication type: Review
Publication status: Published
Journal: Advanced Healthcare Materials
Year: 2016
Volume: 5
Issue: 15
Pages: 1844-1859
Print publication date: 10/08/2016
Online publication date: 05/07/2016
Acceptance date: 08/04/2016
ISSN (print): 2192-2640
ISSN (electronic): 2192-2659
URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/adhm.201600192
DOI: 10.1002/adhm.201600192
