In this thesis, time-lapse fluorescent microscopy plays a pivotal role in investigating functional materials within living cells as well as the migratory behaviour of neural progenitor cells. The... Show moreIn this thesis, time-lapse fluorescent microscopy plays a pivotal role in investigating functional materials within living cells as well as the migratory behaviour of neural progenitor cells. The first part of the thesis focuses on two different functional nanomaterials (Ag-DNA and polymersomes), whereas the second part explores fluorescent labeling of neural progenitor cells and their cell dynamics within different in vitro systems. Show less
Ruthenium complexes are promising prodrugs in photoactivated chemotherapy (PACT): to prevent systemic therapeutic side-effects, a non-toxic version of the drug is introduced in the body and is... Show moreRuthenium complexes are promising prodrugs in photoactivated chemotherapy (PACT): to prevent systemic therapeutic side-effects, a non-toxic version of the drug is introduced in the body and is only activated at the place of the tumor by means of visible light irradiation. However, most of these PACT compounds are only sensitive for UV or blue light, while this light does not permeate the body very well, in contrast to red or near-infrared light. To circumvent this problem, the principle of light-upconversion can be used to "upgrade" red light to blue light in a drug carrier such as a nanovesicle: the tumor is irradiated with red light, after which blue light is generated locally and used to activate the prodrug. Among the various methods of light-upconversion, triplet-triplet annihilation upconversion (TTA-UC) was selected as the most promising. In this thesis it is described that green-to-blue and red-to-blue upconverting nanovesicles were prepared. The red-to-blue upconverted light was successfully used to activate a ruthenium polypyridyl complex that was anchored to the same vesicle. Finally, the inherent oxygen-sensitivity of TTA-UC was greatly mitigated by the addition of water-soluble and biocompatible anti-oxidants. We expect that the results of this thesis will lead to exciting applications in PACT. Show less
Of the various biomolecular building blocks in use in nature, coiled-coil forming peptides are amongst those with the most potential as building blocks for the synthetic self-assembly of... Show moreOf the various biomolecular building blocks in use in nature, coiled-coil forming peptides are amongst those with the most potential as building blocks for the synthetic self-assembly of nanostructures. Native coiled coils have the ability to function in, and influence, complex systems composed of multiple building blocks. However, there have only been a limited number of synthetic coiled-coil assemblies that mimic native coiled coils by incorporating multiple assembling components. This thesis represents efforts at extending this aspect of coiled-coil self-assembly. In order to achieve this, a range of hybrid molecules were synthesized which combine coiled-coil peptides with a hydrophobic component. In this way the highly specific coiled-coil self-assembly is juxtaposed with the non-specific, but structure-inducing aggregation of the hydrophobic section. This thesis asked simple questions: can coiled coils function when covalently attached to large hydrophobic blocks? How large can the hydrophobic blocks be? Can coiled coils function when incorporated noncovalently with a supramolecular assembly? By answering these fundamental questions the possibilities of prescriptive self-assembly have been probed and expanded, novel preparative methods have been developed, and specific applications have arisen. Show less
