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Nanowire-based single-cell endoscopy

Nature Nanotechnology volume 7, pages 191–196 (2012)Cite this article

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Abstract

One-dimensional smart probes based on nanowires and nanotubes that can safely penetrate the plasma membrane and enter biological cells are potentially useful in high-resolution1,2,3,4,5,6 and high-throughput7,8 gene and drug delivery, biosensing6,9 and single-cell electrophysiology6,10. However, using such probes for optical communication across the cellular membrane at the subwavelength level remains limited. Here, we show that a nanowire waveguide attached to the tapered tip of an optical fibre can guide visible light into intracellular compartments of a living mammalian cell, and can also detect optical signals from subcellular regions with high spatial resolution. Furthermore, we show that through light-activated mechanisms the endoscope can deliver payloads into cells with spatial and temporal specificity. Moreover, insertion of the endoscope into cells and illumination of the guided laser did not induce any significant toxicity in the cells.

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Figure 1: Design of the nanowire-based optical probe for single-cell endoscopy.
Figure 2: Spatiotemporal delivery of QDs into a single living HeLa cell.
Figure 3: Subcellular imaging with nanowire endoscopes in a single living cell.
Figure 4: Local sensing of pH by the nanowire endoscope.
Figure 5: Near-field collection of QD fluorescence in a single living HeLa cell.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (grant no. R21 EB007474-03) and Department of Energy (Contract no. DE-AC02-05CH11231). The authors thank Z. Huo for transmission electron microscope observations, D. Sirbuly for the nanowire endoscope bending video, H.E. Jeong, J.W. Lee and Q. Pan for cell culturing, and Q. Pan and S. Gweon for discussions. P.Y. thanks the National Science Foundation for the A. T. Waterman Award.

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Author notes

  1. Ruoxue Yan and Ji-Ho Park: These authors contributed equally to this work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, and Materials Sciences Division, University of California, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, 94720, California, USA

    Ruoxue Yan, Ji-Ho Park & Peidong Yang

  2. Department of Bio and Brain Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, 305-701, South Korea

    Ji-Ho Park

  3. Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Berkeley, 94720, California, USA

    Yeonho Choi, Chul-Joon Heo & Luke P. Lee

  4. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Korea University, Seoul, 136-703, South Korea

    Yeonho Choi

  5. Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, CRI Center for Integrated Optofluidic Systems, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, 305-701, South Korea

    Chul-Joon Heo & Seung-Man Yang

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  1. Ruoxue Yan
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Contributions

R.Y., J.P., Y.C., L.P.L. and P.Y. conceived and designed the research. C.H., Y.C. and S.Y. prepared cell samples and performed the calcein live cell essay after cytotoxicity tests. R.Y., J.P. and Y.C. performed the experiments. R.X., J.P., Y.C., L.P.L. and P.Y. analysed the data. R.Y., J.P. and P.Y. wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Peidong Yang.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Yan, R., Park, JH., Choi, Y. et al. Nanowire-based single-cell endoscopy. Nature Nanotech 7, 191–196 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2011.226

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