Title : Advanced cancer diagnosis and therapy using carbon nanodots/tetrapyrrolic macrocycles conjugates
Abstract:
Carbon is one of the most relevant elements on earth to all forms of life and presents a wide range of natural allotropic forms with high economic potential. Inspired by nature, scientists started to design synthetic strategies for the development of novel allotropic carbon nanomaterials. Harry Kroto et al. are considered the pioneers in this field with the discovery of fullerenes in 1985, [1] which culminated with the attribution of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1996. Recently, the remarkable discovery of graphene nanosheets by Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, which resulted in the first-ever isolation of a 2D crystal with atomic thickness under natural conditions, culminated in the attribution of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010.[2] Carbon atoms' versatility in establishing various chemical interactions between them has enabled the development of novel nanostructured materials in all dimensions (0D, 1D, 2D, and 3D). Indeed, it was realized that the control of carbon chemical structure offers a wide range of optical, chemical features for the development of novel biomedical hybrid materials with high performance. I will present my current research on the design of novel synthetic routes for the conjugation of carbon dots with different tetrapyrrolic macrocycles. Additionally, they will be discussed in terms of their performance in terms of cancer bioimaging [3] and theragnostic [4]. Finally, I will provide my view on their application in the exciting and fast-growing field of biomedicine.
