Gold nanostar, new biomedical imaging tool

24 September 2009

Dr. Alexander Wei and Dr. Kenneth Ritchie of Purdue University have created gold nanostars that can improve biomedical imaging. Researchers found that these nanostars show twinkling effect in presence of rotating magnetic field. The study has been published in the Journal of American Chemical Society.
According to the researchers, background noise is one of the factors responsible for poor imaging, however with the gyromagnetic imaging this problem can be minimized up to great extent.
The 100 nanometer wide nanostart used in the study contains iron oxide core to help the nanostar in spinning under the influence of a magnet. These nanostars after properly aligning reflect light to an attached camera. The speed of the rotating magnetic filed is adjusted in such a way so that the nanostar reflects light at a desired twinkling rate.
The total setup required is a nanostar containing sample cells, a standard microscope, and a white light source, polarizing beam splitter, camera and a rotating magnet. A light is passed through polarizing beam splitter to the sample and light is reflected back through the splitter to the camera that collects images.
Fourier transform and other mathematical tools could be used for processing the information obtained through above setup.

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