Chemists
have an important role to play in the emerging fields
of nanophotonics and biophotonics, and the learning
curve to enter them is not as high as is generally
believed, according to Paras N. Prasad, SUNY Distinguished
Professor in the Department of Chemistry, College
of Arts and Sciences.
That
was the message Prasad sought to communicate during
a symposium, "Novel Directions in Photonics:
Nanophotonics and Biophotonics," held during the
recent American Chemical Society (ACS) national meeting
in San Diego.
Prasad organized the six-session symposium with
George Schatz, Morrison Professor of Chemistry at
Northwestern University.
Nanophotonics is the science behind light and matter
interacting on the nanoscale, while biophotonics
is the science behind the ways that light and biological
matter interact.
Both have mistakenly been viewed, Prasad says, as
falling more within the purview of physicists than
chemists.
"Since the beginnings of both nanophotonics and
biophotonics, chemists have been making major contributions
to these fields," says Prasad, "but their contributions
often go unnoticed.
"We need to recognize how much chemists have done
in these fields already and to encourage younger
chemists to continue that work," he says.
Proving
his point, the plenary talks in the symposium were
delivered by chemists who are among the most prolific
names in photonics and nanotechnology research,
including George M. Whitesides, Woodford L. and Ann
A. Flowers University Professor at Harvard University;
Jean M.J. Fréchet, Henry Rapoport Chair of
Organic Chemistry at the University of California,
Berkeley; and Virgil Percec, P. Roy Vagelos Chair
and Professor of Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania.
"I think chemists may get intimidated because they
feel they have to learn a lot of physics to start
working in nanophotonics or a lot of biology to start
working in biophotonics," says Prasad.
That's a misconception, he continues.
Chemists can start with minimal understanding of
these fields; what is critical is that they begin
to forge key interdisciplinary relationships with
researchers in other, related fields.
"Just eight years ago, I knew very little about
biology," Prasad recalls.
By initiating research relationships with scientists
in other departments, he began to learn how his background
in chemistry could be instrumental in solving some
of the important problems in biophotonics.
In
2003, he authored the field's first comprehensive
book on the field, "Introduction to Biophotonics," and
a year later he published "Nanophotonics," both published
by John Wiley & Sons.
As executive director of UB's Institute for Lasers,
Photonics and Biophotonics, established in 1999,
Prasad conducts interdisciplinary research that has
won him international recognition and resulted in
several patented inventions involving quantum dots
and novel biophotonic materials with applications
ranging from photodynamic cancer therapy to bioimaging
to new dimensions in drug therapy made possible by
nanomedicine.
Most recently, he has developed nanoparticles that
function as carriers for diagnostic-imaging agents
that enhance MRI scans, X-rays and other diagnostic-imaging
techniques, and gene-therapy vectors that carry none
of the immunogenic problems of viral vectors.
"There are huge opportunities for chemists in these
areas," says Prasad, who is invited frequently to
conduct tutorials introducing both nanophotonics
and biophotonics to chemists and chemical engineers.
The ACS symposium featured approximately 40 chemists
working on a broad range of nanophotonics and biophotonics
research projects, including photonic crystals, plasmonics,
nanophotonics and near-field interactions, bioimaging,
biosensing and photodynamic therapy.
Source : University at Buffalo
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