Understanding nanoparticle interactions with cells and cell colonies Seminar

Abstract. The interaction of nanoparticles with single cells has been widely studied, with the influence of particle physio-chemistry and biological membrane function well recorded. The core interest of our research group at Swansea is in how these processes vary from cell to cell and how this heterogeneity determines the nanoparticle uptake and effect at the population level. In this talk I will present an overview of our work using fluorescent nanoparticles (QDots) together with high throughput, automated imaging to quantitatively assess the variation of nanoparticle dose across cells. I will show that through the use of probabilistic statistics we can accurately predict cellular dose and its dilution through cell proliferation. I will also present an analysis of the role of the cell colony on particle uptake and show that the local environment of a cell and in particular its spatial relation to neighbours is the critical determinant of nanoparticle accumulation.