The Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology (WIN) is pleased to present a Distinguished Lecture by Dr. Niko Hildebrandt, Professor of Engineering Physics, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
Please join us on Thursday, October 17 at 11 a.m. to hear Professor Hildebrandt's lecture titled "Luminescent nanoprobes for molecular diagnostics and biosensing."
Where: QNC 1501
When: Thursday, October 17, 2024 | 11 a.m. - 12 p.m.
About the lecture
The investigation of biomolecular recognition via Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) plays an important role for quantifying concentrations and distances in many fields of the life sciences. Application of lanthanide-based photoluminescence spectroscopy and microscopy for the analysis of FRET offers several advantages concerning versatility, sensitivity, and specificity. Lanthanide FRET donors can be molecular (e.g., lanthanide complexes) or nanoparticular (e.g., upconversion nanoparticles) and their FRET acceptor counterparts provide the same nanomolecular flexibility (e.g., quantum dots, dyes, fluorescent proteins). Adding the broad choice of biological recognition molecules, including antibodies, artificial protein binders, aptamers, nucleic acids, or peptides to the FRETomics toolbox provides a boundless source for designing fluorescent probes for biosensing and bioimaging. The presentation will explain time-resolved and time-gated FRET and the specific benefits for spectral and temporal luminescence multiplexing with different materials and instruments. Then, recent applications of multiplexed FRET biosensing and bioimaging with hybrid lanthanide-nanomaterials in solution, in-vitro, in-situ, and in-vivo will be discussed.
About the speaker
Niko Hildebrandt is Professor in the Department of Engineering Physics at McMaster University (Hamilton, Canada) and Canada Excellence Research Chair in Nano-Optical Biosensing and Molecular Diagnostics. He holds a diploma in Medical Physics (2001, Berlin, Germany) and a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry (2007, Potsdam, Germany). Dr. Hildebrandt has worked at different research institutes and universities in Germany, France, South Korea, and Canada. His main research interests are time-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy and microscopy and the application of lanthanides and nanomaterials for multiplexed Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) biosensing and bioimaging. He has supervised many students and postdocs, published a lot of papers and book chapters, wrote a couple of patents, organized some conferences, received a handful or prizes, and sits on the boards of a few scientific journals.