"Nanophotonics Comes to China"

By Rachel Won,

Nature Photonics, September 2007, Vol.1, No.9, page 498

The first OSA topical meeting in China was dedicated to optics on the nanoscale. Experts from all over the world gathered in Hangzhou and heard how this emerging technology could help healthcare, communications and energy generation.

Nanophotonics is a rapidly progressing multidisciplinary field that exploits modern semiconductor, glass and organic fabrication technologies to create a breed of nanoscale device with attractive optical properties. As well as offering the opportunity to study light–matter interactions on a scale much smaller than the wavelength of light, nanophotonics is now seriously being considered as a promising approach to tackle global issues such as healthcare and energy generation. This was the main message that Nature Photonics came away with from the first OSA topical meeting in China — Nanophotonics 2007.

Hangzhou — widely known as the Paradise on Earth in China because of the natural beauty of its West Lake — was the base for Nanophotonics 2007 in June. The home to this four-day conference was Zhejiang University — a leading Chinese university in optical engineering whose contributions in optics date back to 1952. The conference brought together 160 presentations with more than 180 attendees from 16 countries.

Presentation topics ranged from light– matter interactions through to materials processing and synthesis, fabrication methods, characterizations, design, modelling, applications and devices.

As for potential applications, the three most promising areas that many researchers in nanophotonics are actively involved in are healthcare, energy generation and optical communications. Paras Prasad from the University of New York at Buffalo, USA, who was the keynote speaker of the meeting, reminded fellow attendees of the opportunities and challenges for nanophotonics, especially in medicine.

“By taking advantage of the luminescent properties of quantum nanodots and nanorods, nanophotonic probes for imaging and sensing can be realized providing early detection of diseases, real-time monitoring of disease progression and drug action, as well as more effective therapy controlled by light,” said Prasad.

His research is now mainly focused on addressing conditions that have a profound impact on society today, namely cancer, obesity, addiction and ageing. According to Prasad, the current challenge is how to develop a biocompatible nanoprobe that can be activated by light at a wavelength in the optical window, where it has maximum transparency in biological cells, tissues and organs.

Jing Yong Ye and co-workers from the University of Michigan and Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, both in the USA, presented a real-time detection system for anticancer-drug delivery to tumours. Instead of using quantum dots, the scheme is based on a two-photon optical-fibre fluorescence probe and the ultrafast laser interaction with dendrimer-based nanoparticles targeted on tumour cells. The researchers quantified the tumour uptake of dendrimer nanoparticles and found a fourfold increase compared with the uptake by a tumour that was not targeted by the nanoparticles. According to the team, the field enhancement and cell-targeting capability of the dendrimer nanocomposite would help cancer diagnosis and treatment.

As for energy generation, nanophotonics looks set to contribute substantially to photovoltaics by enabling broadband harvesting of solar photons (from UV to infrared) and the control of energy flow to maximize the conversion into electrical energy. For example, Prasad’s group is developing a nanocomposite-plastic-based media consisting of layers of quantum dots, polymers and carbon nanotubes to make large-area solar panels at low cost.“Light at ultraviolet wavelengths and beyond 1,000 nm (infrared wavelengths) is usually wasted as heat. By optimizing the combined characteristics of these materials, photons at any wavelength can be absorbed and significantly enhanced solar-energy conversion can be acquired at low cost,” said Prasad. “The challenge fornanophotonics here is how to maximize the steps of conversion from absorbed photons to electrical charges and to collect them
effi ciently in a plastic-based medium.”

And then there’s the role of nanophotonics in communications and information technology. By using a clever design of slotted photonic crystal, Ray Chen and colleagues from the University of Texas and Omega Optics in Austin, USA, reported a vertical metal-oxidesemiconductor capacitor-based silicon photonic-crystal modulator that has a 20-fF ultralow gate capacitance, which will lead to significant enhancement of the intrinsic modulation bandwidth. The calculated bandwidth value was reported at 80 GHz. Kiyoshi Asakawa from the University of Tsukuba also presented a logic device that has an all-optical flip-flop function, which enables it to switch between one logical state and another, by combining two kinds of nanophotonic technologies: GaAsbased two-dimensional photonic-crystal slab waveguides and InAs quantum dots. This device was said to be the key optical logic device in a future advanced ultrafastphotonics network.

One obvious trend that can be noticed from this conference was that, just like the marriage of photonics and nanotechnology, most of the papers were results gained from collaborative work among several universities spanning different continents and areas of expertise. “Major scientific breakthrough frequently occurs at the interface between various disciplines,” emphasized Prasad.Sailing He from Zhejiang University and Joseph Haus from the University of Dayton, USA, both co-chairs of the meeting, commented on how good quality nanophotonics research quite often involves multidisciplinary knowledge and expensive equipment, which a single research team does not have. Thus, they argued that collaboration is key to fill the knowledge gaps as well as to overcome equipment shortages.

When asked about the status of photonics research in China, Sailing He proudly replied that the Chinese government has always been very supportive and serious about optics and photonics. “For example, the Chinese government has set up quite a few research institutes in Shanghai, Changchun, Xi’an and Chengdu that specialize in optics and photonics under the umbrella of the Chinese Academy of Science.” According to He, besides research institutes, there are now over two dozen universities in China that have schools or colleges of optics or photonics.

With most of the researchers heading home with new knowledge and friendships, the OSA’s topical meeting series on nanophotonics seems to have got off to a good start. This meeting is now anticipated to be held annually with the initial intention of having it in China and then moving it to other countries, such as Taiwan, Japan and South Korea, in the near future once it is well established. The next OSA Nanophotonics topical meeting will be held in Nanjing, China from 26 to 29 May 2008.

View fRoM… nanoPHotonicS 2007 Nanophotonics comes to China
© 2007 Nature Publishing Group

Lighting the Patterns of Liquid Crystal Molecular Orientations with CARS Microscopy

A. V. Kachynski, A. N. Kuzmin, P. N. Prasad, I. I. Smalyukh. “Coherent Anti-Stokes Raman Scattering Polarized Microscopy of Three-dimensional Director Structures in Liquid Crystals”. /Applied Physics Letters /, *91* (2007) #151905.

In the latest issue of Applied Physics Letters, a new approach to imaging of director fields in liquid crystals is reported by a collaborative research team from the University at Buffalo and the University of Colorado at Boulder. Kachynski, Kuzmin, Prasad and Smalyukh report the 3-D imaging of LC director structures using coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) microscopy. This method utilizes active vibrational Raman scattering to generate contrast signal and does not require doping the liquid crystal with dyes. It offers fast image acquisition, chemical selectivity and bond-orientation specificity that are all superior to that of other techniques.

In order to demonstrate that the contrast in CARS polarized microscopy textures arises due to molecular orientation patterns, researchers use a single-compound liquid crystal material and decipher a typical 3D director structure. Determined by the angle between the selected chemical bond and the polarization of the probe beam, the measured CARS signal intensity pattern describes the director field’s spatial configuration. The technique provides 100,000 times faster imaging than the confocal Raman microscopy. Researchers demonstrate that the CARS polarized microscopy (CARS-PM) is a viable technique for mapping of the 3-D patterns of molecular orientations and LC director dynamics.

Fast image acquisition and short CARS signal integration times can allow one to study temporal dynamics of director structures in liquid crystal displays. Selective sensitivity to oscillations makes CARS microscopy especially attractive for imaging of different LC directors in biaxial nematics and smectics by using different chemical bonds of the biaxial LC molecules. The article by Kachynski et al. demonstrates that CARS microscopy can be successfully used not only for visualizing chemical composition and bond orientation in biological and lyotropic systems, but also in materials of technological importance (liquid crystals), and that CARS images can reveal molecular orientations even in the case if a material is composed of a single chemical compound.

These researchers are currently using the technique to probe director patterns in multi-component heterogeneous systems such as LC colloids, anisotropic polymers, and nanoparticle-LC composite materials, which are now widely viewed as promising materials to build a variety of tunable optical metamaterials. The technique will allow one to explore how nano-sized inclusions and microparticles alter the director field of these ordered soft materials and what the structures of induced defects around the inclusions.

 

http://scitation.aip.org/journals/doc/APPLAB-ft/vol_91/iss_15/151905_1.html

Figure: 3D focal conic domain director structure has been reconstructed using a series of XY images obtained in the F-CARS mode at different depths of sample and with 1 mm step in Z-direction

 

No Carrier Necessary: This Drug Delivers Itself

Release Date March 8, 2007

By ELLEN GOLDBAUM
Contributing Editor

The problem of efficiently delivering drugs, especially those that are hydrophobic or water-repellant, to tumors or other disease sites has long challenged scientists to develop innovative delivery systems that keep these drugs intact until reaching their targets.

Confocal microscope image shows uptake of the nanocrystals by cancer cells.

Now scientists in UB's Institute for Lasers, Photonics and Biophotonics and Roswell Park Cancer Institute have developed an innovative solution in which the delivery system is the drug itself.

They describe for the first time in Molecular Pharmaceutics a drug-delivery system that consists of nanocrystals of a hydrophobic drug.

The system involves the use of nanocrystals measuring about 100 nanometers of pure HPPH (2-devinyl-2-(1'-hexyloxyethyl) pyropheophorbide), a photosensitizer currently in Phase I/II human clinical trials at RPCI for treating various types of cancer.

The UB researchers found that the nanocrystals of HPPH were taken up by tumors in vivo, with efficacy comparable to conventional, surfactant-based delivery systems.

A patent has been filed on this work.

"In this case, the drug itself acts as its own carrier," said Haridas Pudavar, UB research assistant professor of chemistry and a co-author.

The nanocrystals present a major advantage over methods of delivery involving other carriers, according to Paras Prasad, SUNY Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemistry in the College of Arts and Sciences, executive director of the institute and a co-author.

Because other delivery systems, especially those containing surfactants, commonly used with HPPH and many other drugs may add to the toxicity in the body, they have been considered imperfect solutions.

"Unlike formulations that require separate delivery systems, once this drug is approved, no additional approvals will be needed," said Prasad.

"Our published data in animal models demonstrate no difference in drug activity with the nanocrystal formulation," said Ravindra Pandey, Distinguished Professor of biophysical sciences at RPCI and a co-author on the paper.

"This is a case where the easiest formulation works the best," added Indrajit Roy, UB research assistant professor of chemistry and another co-author.

The researchers found that because HPPH is amphiphillic, i.e. partially soluble in water and oil, nanocrystals of it will self-assemble; that is, in solution the molecules aggregate, but not into such big clusters that they settle to the bottom.

"It's a controlled formation of a colloidally stable suspension of nanosized crystals," explained Tymish Ohulchanskyy, UB senior research scientist and a co-author.

The researchers originally were investigating nanocrystals as a delivery method for hydrophobic dyes in bioimaging applications, another promising use for nanocrystals that they continue to pursue.

Further in vivo studies with HPPH nanocrystals are being conducted by scientists at UB and RPCI, including Pandey and Allan R. Oseroff, chair of the Department of Dermatology at RPCI and in UB's School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

The UB-RPCI team is exploring the use of the same technique for delivering other hydrophobic drugs, including those used in chemotherapy.

Additional co-authors on the paper are Koichi Baba, former postdoctoral research associate in the UB Department of Chemistry, and Yihui Chen, postdoctoral research associate at RPCI.

The nanocrystal research was supported by the National Institutes of Health, the John R. Oishei Foundation and UB's New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences, with additional support from RPCI.

In related work, the UB researchers have achieved improved depth penetration of HPPH using two-photon photodynamic therapy, research that recently was published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

 

Hybrid Nanoparticles for Multimodal Medical Imaging

Release Date 09/25/06

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Since X-rays were discovered more than a century ago, triggering a revolution in medical imaging, clinicians have sought more powerful ways to "see" into the human body.

Now, with a $1.1 million grant from the John R. Oishei Foundation, researchers in the University at Buffalo's Institute for Lasers, Photonics and Biophotonics are turning their expertise in nanomedicine to the development of new, nanoparticle-based multi-probe systems, launching a new generation of medical imaging. The grant will fund research in which two or more medical imaging techniques are combined to provide complementary information.

Part of a new field called nanobiotechnology, the UB scientists are designing these nanoparticle systems to contain multiple contrast agents for different imaging medical techniques.

The goal is to diagnose cancer and other diseases in their earliest stages by providing far more comprehensive data to clinicians.

"Ultimately, clinicians want the most complete data possible that they can gather from medical images, ranging from tissue structure to metabolic processes to molecular markers," said Paras Prasad, Ph.D., executive director of the Institute for Lasers, Photonics and Biophotonics and SUNY Distinguished Professor of Chemistry.

"We are aiming to provide them with such data by developing nanoparticle platforms capable of carrying multiple contrast agents for complementary medical imaging techniques in the same nano-sized package," he said.

Once injected with these multimodal nanoparticles, the patient can undergo several imaging tests, the results of which will be combined to provide more comprehensive and complementary information, such as correlations between molecular and morphological changes at the cellular level.

The result is a far more sensitive and comprehensive method of detecting the presence or progression of a disease.

"At the same time, these imaging agents will provide pharmaceutical researchers and clinicians with powerful tools for more precise monitoring and tracking of drug action in real-time," said Prasad.

The multimodal platforms underway in Prasad's group are based on versatile nanoparticles that the UB researchers have developed with previous Oishei Foundation funding that have been shown to be effective in a broad range of therapeutic applications.

"The fields of nanomedicine in which Dr. Prasad and his teams are working are developing extremely rapidly, and they are at the forefront," said Thomas E. Baker, president of the foundation. "The work of these grants has tremendous potential for significantly improving both the diagnostic capabilities of physicians and the clinical outcomes of patients."

The research also is being conducted with partial funding from UB's New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences, a major supporter of the nanomedicine program at the Institute for Lasers, Photonics and Biophotoncs. Prasad is affiliated with the Bioengineering/Tissue Engineering Team at the Center of Excellence.

"This new imaging work represents an exciting and timely extension of our existing nanomedicine portfolio that will be particularly important for the Center of Excellence initiatives in neurodegenerative disease and cancer," said Bruce A. Holm, UB senior vice provost and executive director of the Center of Excellence. "This research not only crosses a variety of UB 2020 Strategic Strength areas, but holds enormous promise for commercialization potential as well."

The UB institute's new emphasis on application of nanobiotechnology to medical imaging also distinguishes it from other nanotechnology research centers throughout the U.S., while enriching its current collaborations with The Johns Hopkins University, Roswell Park Cancer Institute and others.

The nanoprobes are being developed for use with:

-- Optical imaging techniques, especially those in which fluorescence and Raman scattering can probe the intracellular distribution of molecular events that are early signals of disease or responses to drugs

-- Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), in which fluorine nuclear probes would be developed using the nanoparticles, providing more selective targeting of specific biological sites

-- Positron emission tomography (PET), in which radioisotopes are incorporated inside nanoparticles as contrast agents for more sensitive assessments of drug efficacy during therapy

-- Computed tomography (CT) and single photon emission computer tomography (SPECT), in which radio-opaque ions are incorporated inside nanoparticles as contrast agents for improved in vivo imaging.

The Oishei grant, "Developing New Advances in Medical Imaging through Nanotechnology," will be used in part to recruit and support a research professor to provide expertise in ultrasound imaging, as well as postdoctoral fellows and graduate students who will focus on the development of multimodal nanoprobes for medical imaging.

In addition to Prasad, other key personnel involved in the research from the Institute for Lasers, Photonics and Biophotonics are E. J. Bergey, Ph.D., deputy director of biophotonics; Dinish Sukumaran, Ph.D., director of UB's magnetic resonance center; Indrajit Roy, Ph.D., postdoctoral associate; Tymish Y. Ohulchanskyy, Ph.D., postdoctoral associate; Haridas E. Pudivar, Ph.D., research assistant professor and Aliksandr Kachynski, Ph.D., research scholar, all in the Department of Chemistry. Also involved are Richard V. Mazurchuk, Ph.D., director of the preclinical magnetic resonance facility, Ravindra K. Pandey, Ph.D., professor of biophysical sciences. Hani A. Nabi, Ph.D., at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, and Benjamin Tsui, Ph.D., at Johns Hopkins, also are involved.

The John R. Oishei Foundation is committed to enhancing the quality of life for Buffalo-area residents by supporting education, health care, scientific research and the cultural, social, civic and other charitable needs of the community. The foundation was established in 1940 by John R. Oishei, founder of Trico Products Corp., one of the world's leading manufacturers of windshield wiper systems.

 

Magnetic Field Acts as "Remote Control" to Deliver Nanomedicine

Release Date 06/06/06

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A nanoparticle-based drug delivery concept in which an applied magnetic field directs the accumulation in tumor cells of custom-designed, drug-filled nanocarriers has been demonstrated by University at Buffalo researchers.

The new approach, recently published in Molecular Pharmaceutics, may lead to treatments that exploit the advantages of photodynamic therapy (PDT) and that have the potential to reduce drug accumulation in normal tissues.

The in vitro results showed that magnetically guided delivery to tumor cells of these customized nanocarriers allowed for more precise targeting, while boosting cellular uptake of the PDT drugs contained inside them.

"This is a novel way to enhance drug delivery to cells," said Paras Prasad, Ph.D., executive director of UB's Institute for Lasers, Photonics and Biophotonics, SUNY Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemistry in the UB College of Arts and Sciences and co-author on the paper.

"The externally applied magnetic field acted as a kind of 'remote control,' directing the nanocarriers to the targeted area in the cell culture," he said.

Once the magnetic field was applied, the concentration of drug inside the tumor cells in the target area increased.

"We have shown that we can use magnetophoretic control to deliver PDT drug to tumor cells, resulting in increased accumulation inside those cells," explained Tymish Ohulchanskyy, Ph.D., senior research scientist in the Department of Chemistry.

The research was conducted with partial funding from UB's New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences, which is a major supporter of the nanomedicine program at the Institute for Lasers, Photonics and Biophotonics. Prasad is affiliated with the Bioengineering/Tissue Engineering Team at the Center of Excellence.

"The nanomedicine work by Dr. Prasad and his team has far-reaching implications for a variety of disease areas, including neurological disease and cardiac disease," said Bruce A. Holm, UB senior vice provost and executive director of the Center of Excellence. "The institute represents a key partner with the Center of Excellence."

According to Prasad, photodynamic therapy is one of the most promising treatments for cancer; it's also being investigated as a treatment method for cardiovascular, dermatological and ophthalmic diseases.

PDT exploits the propensity of tumors to retain higher concentrations of photosensitive drugs than normal tissues. When exposed to laser light, these drugs generate toxic molecules that destroy the cancer cells.

The main side effect associated with photodynamic cancer therapy is the patient's strong sensitivity to light for four to six weeks after treatment, a result of PDT drugs that accumulate in the skin.

"The magnetically guided drug delivery would allow for the use of lower concentrations of the drug to deliver a therapeutic dose, thus significantly reducing the amount of PDT drug that accumulates in normal tissue," said Prasad.

The UB team achieved these results with a novel nanocarrier system, developed from polymer micelles, which are nanosized, water-dispersible clusters of polymeric molecules.

Prasad explained that polymeric micelles are excellent nanocarriers for PDT drugs, which are mostly water-insoluble.

Along with the photodynamic drug, the UB researchers encapsulated inside the nanocarriers iron oxide nanoparticles, which allowed them to respond to externally applied magnetic fields.

In the experiments, nanocarriers were shown to be efficiently taken up by cultured tumor cells in the area exposed to the magnetic field, as demonstrated by confocal microscopy.

While the team has demonstrated this concept with PDT drugs, Prasad said the technique would be useful in delivering gene therapy, chemotherapy or practically any kind of pharmaceutical treatment into cells.

"Because the nanocarriers proved to be significantly stable and because they retained the PDT drugs, we are optimistic that they will be able to deliver a wide range of therapies to tumors or other disease sites in the body without any significant loss in the circulatory system or in normal tissues," said Prasad.

The team is beginning in vivo studies on the new drug-delivery method.

Preliminary studies in live animals have indicated that an applied magnetic field can effect a localized accumulation in the tumor site, according to Earl J. Bergey, Ph.D., deputy director of biophotonics at the UB institute and a co-author on the paper.

Other co-authors are Ludmila O. Cinteza, Ph.D., former post-doctoral researcher at the institute; Ravindra K. Pandey, Ph.D., professor of biophysical sciences at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute and research professor at the institute and Yudhisthira Sahoo, Ph.D., research assistant professor in the UB Department of Chemistry.

The UB research was funded by the John R. Oishei Foundation, UB's New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences and by the UB Interdisciplinary Research and Creative Activities Fund. New York State Sen. Mary Lou Rath also has provided generous support to UB's Institute for Lasers, Photonics and Biophotonics.

 

Top University to Award Prasad Its Highest Honor

News Release Date 3/13/06

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Zhejiang University (ZJU), one of China's top research universities, traditionally bestows its most prestigious award, the honorary professorship, on Nobel Laureates and its honorary doctorate on world leaders.

Past recipients include Nobel laureates in physics, such as David Gross and T.D. Lee, and Nobel laureates in economics, such as James A. Mirrlees, Robert Mundell and Robert W. Fogel. World leaders, such as Kofi Anan, secretary general of the United Nations, have been recipients as well.

This year, for the first time, ZJU is awarding the honorary professorship not to a world leader or to a Nobel laureate, but to a University at Buffalo scientist who has earned a global reputation as a leader in the fields of photonics, biophotonics and nanophotonics, as well as a champion of world-class scientific research in developing countries.

This fall, Paras N. Prasad, Ph.D., SUNY Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemistry at UB and executive director of its Institute for Lasers, Photonics and Biophotonics, will travel to China to receive the honorary professorship in a dedication ceremony at ZJU.

He will spend several weeks at the university as a visiting researcher.

"Zhejiang University is happy to award this honorary professorship, the highest honor given by this university, to Professor Paras Prasad in recognition of his pioneering work in photonics, nanophotonics and biophotonics, as well as for his world leadership advancing a global infrastructure in science and technology," according to an official statement released by the office of ZJU President Yunhe Pan.

Honoring Prasad is especially fitting, according to Sailing He, Ph.D., professor and director for ZJU's Center for Optical and Electromagnetic Research, because the university is the home of Chinese optics and photonics, and the top Chinese university in these fields in which Prasad has pioneered new developments.

Prasad has conducted groundbreaking research in the development of photonics and other emerging areas created by the fusion of nanotechnology (nanophotonics) and biotechnology (biophotonics), which are at the leading edges of scientific discovery worldwide.

He also has led scientific teams to develop new approaches in nanomedicine, for example, his patented nanoclinic technology for optically trackable therapies designed for specific targeted sites in the human body. Most recently, he and his colleagues developed and used customized nanoparticles to achieve gene therapy, avoiding the need to rely on potentially toxic viruses as vectors, an achievement for which he was named one of the world's top 50 scientists in 2005 by Scientific American.

The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1997, Prasad is a fellow of the Optical Society of America, the American Physical Society and SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering.

With 10 patents to his credit, he also is the author of "Introduction to Biophotonics" (John Wiley & Sons, 2003) and "Nanophotonics" (John Wiley & Sons, 2004).

In addition, he has published more than 500 scientific papers and co-edited or coauthored major books in the field of photonics materials.

Prasad is the recipient of the Schoelkopf Medal and the Morley Award of the American Chemical Society, and the SUNY Excellence in the Pursuit of Knowledge Award.

He is a resident of Amherst.

 

Prasad Named One of World's Top 50 in Science

News Release Date 11/07/05

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Paras N. Prasad, Ph.D., SUNY Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University at Buffalo, has been named one of the Scientific American 50, the prestigious magazine's annual list of "outstanding acts of leadership in science and technology from the past year."

Prasad was selected for his research using customized nanoparticles developed by him and his colleagues to achieve gene therapy, avoiding the need to rely on potentially toxic viruses as vectors.

Executive director of UB's multidisciplinary Institute for Lasers, Photonics and Biophotonics, he is a faculty member in the Department of Chemistry in UB's College of Arts and Sciences.

Selected by the magazine's board of editors and outside experts, the Scientific American 50 recognizes research, business and policy leaders.

The list of the Scientific American 50 appears in the December issue of Scientific American, which will be on newsstands on Nov. 22.

"The University at Buffalo is honored to have one of our distinguished faculty included among the Scientific American 50," said Jorge José, Ph.D., UB vice president for research.

"Dr. Prasad and his work are prime examples of the multidisciplinary focus that will guide the future of scientific research in the 21st century. The success of his efforts is demonstrated by the wide range of support he has received from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the New York State Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research and the Oishei Foundation, among others. He also has been in the forefront of efforts in translational research from the laboratory to the marketplace with tangible results for Western New York.

"This is a well-deserved recognition and we're very proud that Dr. Prasad is a member of our faculty," José continued.

John Rennie, editor-in-chief of the magazine, said, "The Scientific American 50 is our annual opportunity to salute the people and organizations worldwide whose research, policy or business leadership has played a major role in bringing about the science and technology innovations that are improving the way we live and offer the greatest hope for the future."

The magazine describes Prasad's research involving an animal model as providing new hope for fixing genetic defects.

Prasad and his colleagues used gene-nanoparticle complexes to activate adult brain stem/progenitor cells in vivo, demonstrating that it may be possible to 'turn on' these otherwise idle cells as effective replacements for those destroyed by neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson's.

The UB research, conducted by a multidisciplinary group, including Michael K. Stachowiak, Ph.D., UB associate professor of pathology and anatomical sciences, also demonstrates that the nanoparticles can serve as promising models for studying the genetic mechanisms of the brain.

The research is a critical part of the nanomedicine program of UB's Institute for Lasers, Photonics and Biophotonics, which also has received support from State Senator Mary Lou Rath.

Last month, Prasad was awarded a major National Cancer Institute grant aimed at developing nanotechnologies for earlier detection methods and more effective treatments for pancreatic cancer.

Prasad holds the Samuel P. Capen Chair at UB, as well as joint appointments in the departments of physics, medicine and electrical engineering in UB's College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

In addition to his nanomedicine research, Prasad conducts pioneering research in the development and application of two-photon technology for biophotonics and 3-D microfabrication.

With 10 patents to his credit, he is the author of "Introduction to Biophotonics" (John Wiley & Sons, 2003) and "Nanophotonics" (John Wiley & Sons, 2004). The first two monographs to comprehensively address these fields, they were published to critical acclaim.

Prasad has published more than 500 scientific papers, co-edited six books and co-authored a monograph (with D.J. Williams), "Introduction to Nonlinear Optical Effects in Molecules and Polymers."

He lives in Amherst.

Last updated:April 3,2008