Carbon Nanomaterials for Bioimaging, Bioanalysis, and Therapy

6 Tracking Photoluminescent Carbon Nanomaterials in Biological Systems

Simon Haziza^1,2 Laurent Cognet^3,4 and François Treussart⁵

¹ James H. Clark Center for Biomedical Engineering & Sciences, Stanford University, USA

² CNC Program, Stanford University, USA

³ Laboratoire Photonique Numérique et Nanosciences, Université de Bordeaux, Talence, France

⁴ Institut d'Optique d’Aquitaine & CNRS, Talence, France

⁵ Laboratoire Aimé Cotton, CNRS, Université Paris‐Sud, ENS Paris‐Saclay and Université Paris‐Saclay, Orsay, France

Chapter Summary

This chapter highlights some recently published outstanding researches that have pushed further the boundary of photoluminescent carbon nanomaterials applications to biological systems and have brought invaluable insights into cellular and organism dynamics. From our perspective, there is a need for nanoparticle‐based methodologies that allow researchers to access the spatiotemporal dynamics inherent to a wide variety of biological processes.

Two carbon allotropes have recently shown remarkable advances in neurosciences: fluorescent nanodiamonds (FND) [1], and single‐walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) [2]. This chapter highlights three examples of recent archetypical achievements based on the tracking of FND or SWCNT while being aware that the list is not exhaustive. Single‐particle tracking (SPT) of FND was used to monitor the endosomal transport inside hippocampal neurons dissociated from mouse embryos and the author used this nanoparticle‐based ...