Our research aims at the development and characterization of nanostructured metal surfaces as plasmonic substrates for bioanalytical SERS applications. Besides developing novel SERS substrates, we also aim at a better understanding of the interaction between these metal nanostructures, such as metal nanoparticles, and biological fluids (e.g. serum, saliva), as a necessary step toward the application of nanotechnology to biological systems, and in particular to humans. Gold and silver nanoparticles and other nanostructured surfaces are promising for a variety of applications, from photo-thermal therapy to drug delivery, from drug monitoring to diagnostics, as antibacterial agents or as sensors. Many of these application require the direct contact between these nanomaterials and a biofluid, so that a better insight on how there nano-objects interact with these complex biological samples is crucial. Moreover, we also study how these metal nanostructures can be put to use for real clinical applications, mainly as point-of-care diagnostic tests or monitoring tools based on SERS spectroscopy.
CONTACTS
Alois Bonifacio
Department of Engineering and Architecture
University of Trieste
abonifacio@units.it
Valter Sergo
Department of Engineering and Architecture
University of Trieste sergo@units.it
Last updated on: 06/08/2020 - 10:25
