Upconversion: road to El Dorado of the fluorescence world.
Upconversion nanoparticles (UCNs), in the recent times have attracted attention due to their unique properties, which makes them ideal fluorophores for use in biological applications. There have been various reports on their use for targeted cell imaging, drug and gene delivery and also for diffuse optical tomography. Here we give a brief introduction on what are UCNs and the mechanism of upconversion, followed by a discussion on the biological applications of UCNs and further on what the future holds for UCNs.
Ong
Li Ching
LC
Division of Bioengineering, Faculty of Engineering, National University of Singapore, 117576, Singapore.
Gnanasammandhan
Muthu Kumara
MK
Nagarajan
Sounderya
S
Zhang
Yong
Y
D000818:Animals; D002460:Cell Line; D005453:Fluorescence; D006801:Humans; D008163:Luminescent Measurements; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D017785:Photons; D045663:Quantum Dots; D051381:Rats