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UID:69d28d16c9d64
DTSTART:20230421T130000Z
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TRANSP:OPAQUE
LOCATION:ICFO Homage Room
SUMMARY:ICFO | UNAI ORTIZ DE ORRUÑO CUESTA
CLASS:PUBLIC
DESCRIPTION:Nowadays\, being able to precisely characterize nanoparticles i
 s of key relevance in a wide range of scenarios. For instance\, chemical a
 nd pharmaceutical industries often rely in particle-sizing for quality con
 trol. In a clinical context\, in contrast\, sensitive bioparticle characte
 rization platforms can lead to the diagnosis of early-stage illnesses. How
 ever\, the needs between each scenario vary\, due to the differences in sa
 mples&rsquo\; composition and the particle-property of interest. Hence\, s
 everal nanoparticle characterization techniques have emerged\, each one ba
 sed on a different physical principle and best suited for particular usage
  scopes.\nIn this thesis\, I improve the optical nanoparticle sizing techn
 iques by using holography. I present different optical systems that image 
 nanoparticles and record their scattering signal into holograms. I show ho
 w to reconstruct the scattered light&rsquo\;s wavefront using holographic 
 processing tools and how to extract the particle size information from it.
  I prove the capabilities of the holographic imaging systems that I introd
 uce by providing their technical characterization and by measuring relevan
 t samples.\nFirst\, I introduce an imaging system with an extended the dyn
 amic range compared to conventional darkfield microscopes. I demonstrate t
 he nanoparticle sizing capabilities of such holographic platform using cal
 ibration samples. Moreover\, I provide a proof-of-concept in the form of t
 he characterization of a clinical sample\, composed by extracellular vesic
 les\, to demonstrate the feasibility of the platform for the development o
 f point-of-care systems.\nAfterwards\, I show how nanoparticle tracking an
 alysis (NTA)\, that is to size particles from their diffusion\, can be imp
 roved by using holography. The use of holography not only increases the NT
 A&rsquo\;s precision\, thanks to its ability to capture better the particl
 es&rsquo\; diffusion\, but also provides the refractive index information 
 of the sample. The latter is of especial interest when measuring samples o
 f unknown compositions\, such as clinical extractions. I present experimen
 tal evidence of the improvements in the NTA&rsquo\;s sizing precision and 
 the simultaneous retrieval of the refractive index. Additionally\, I measu
 re the radial shift of the nanoparticles induced by the formation of prote
 in-coronas\, which I believe that proves the platform&rsquo\;s relevance f
 or studying the particles&rsquo\; behaviour in biological fluids.\nFinally
 \, I present a system that confines particles in the volume-of-view of a h
 olographic imaging system for further improving the NTA&rsquo\;s sizing pr
 ecision. Such platform&rsquo\;s design was motivated by the promising resu
 lts obtained using holographic NTA and its potential usage on fundamental 
 research of protein-corona formation. The idea behind the system is to obt
 ain longer particle-diffusion trajectories for pushing the holographic NTA
  sensitivity down to what is necessary to detect the absorption of a singl
 e protein onto a nanoparticle. I demonstrate the capabilities of such plat
 form by showing a thorough technical evaluation based on experimental evid
 ence.\nI foresee that the presented holographic platforms will find many a
 pplications of both fundamental and applied nature. In particular\, consid
 ering the ability of such platforms to analyse polydisperse samples\, I ex
 pect to contribute to advances in the fundamental research of extracellula
 r vesicles.\nFriday April 21\, 15:00 h. ICFO Homage Room\nThesis Director:
  Prof Dr. Niek van Hulst
DTSTAMP:20260405T162558Z
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