Publications

Deng, W, Jin, D & Goldys, EM 2011, 'METAL NANOSTRUCTURE-ENHANCED FLUORESCENCE AND ITS BIOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS' in Kane, D, Micolich, A & Rabeau, J (eds), Nanotechnology in Australia: Showcase of Early Career Research, Pan Stanford Publishing, USA, pp. 347-374.
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Over the last two decades, fluorescence-based detection has become one of the leading sensing technologies in biomedical, biological, and related sciences. Its sensitivity makes it possible to detect a single biomolecule through labelling with a suitable fluorophore. Two principal fluorophore properties, brightness and photostability, are fundamentally important to achieve a high level of sensitivity, and in many conventional fluorophores these often fall short of the requirements. Among the methods used to improve the sensitivity of fluorescence detection, the metal-enhanced fluorescence (MEF) technique has been recently actively developed. The MEF phenomenon occurs when an excited fluorophore is located in close proximity to metals, and it is particularly pronounced near noble metal nanostructures. Electrons in such metal nanostructures exhibit strong resonances often located in the visible part of the spectrum (also known as surface plasmon resonance). They can interact with proximal fluorophores, modifying their optical properties and producing increased quantum yield (fluorescence efficiency) and improved photostability. It has been experimentally demonstrated that the MEF technique can increase fluorescence intensity up to several hundreds times. This chapter provides an overview of MEF, covering its basic theory, synthesis of metal nanostructures, and biological applications based on MEF. We focus on silver nanostructures because their strong surface plasmon resonance in the visible matches the absorption and emission bands of most fluorophores. We discuss traditional planar MEF substrates as well as silver nanostructures deposited on micrometre-sized silica beads, generating a fluorescence enhancement of more than one order of magnitude. This achievement allowed us to demonstrate for the first time MEF immunoassays on silica beads by using high-throughput flow cytometry. Furthermore, we discovered that these silver nanostructure-coated silica be...

Jin, D, Yuan, J & Piper, J 2011, 'LONG-LIFETIME LUMINESCENT NANOBIOPROBES FOR ADVANCED CYTOMETRY BIOSENSING' in Kane, D, Micolich, A & Rabeau, J (eds), Nanotechnology in Australia: Showcase of Early Career Research, Pan Stanford Publishing, USA, pp. 317-344.
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In biological discovery and disease diagnosis, there are increasing demands for rapid detection of trace amounts of cells, organisms, and molecules. one of the most popular methods is labelling the target analytes with fluorescent bioprobes, thus making the targets spectrally distinguishable. However, conventional molecular bioprobes are weak, photobleaching, and often not sufficient to suppress autofluorescence backgrounds by spectral discrimination, since many naturally occurring substances are autofluorescent under ultraviolet (uV) or visible-wavelength excitation. This represents a typical biosensing problem of detecting a needle in a haystack. Here we show long-lifetime luminescent silica nanoparticles as bioprobes to provide excellent opportunities in suppression of autofluorescence backgrounds in the temporal domain. This is due to the exceptionally long lifetime from lanthanide bioprobes in the order of several hundred microseconds, in contrast to the few-nanosecond-lifetime autofluorescence backgrounds. using a covalent-binding nanoencapsulation technique, the as-prepared ~40 nm monodisperse silica nanoparticle effectively protects thousands of lanthanide complex dyes against the quenching environment. This results in both remarkable signal amplification and enhanced photostability. Due to the large difference in the lifetime, the microsecond-lived signal luminescence can be detected in a background-free condition against the nanosecond-lived autofluorescence using time-gated detection. Furthermore, the effective simultaneous confinement of multiple lanthanide-element dyes within nanoparticles also provides opportunities to produce multiplexing bioprobes. In this chapter, we showcase our successfully engineered microsecond-lifetime nanobioprobes for immunobioassays of human prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and bioimaging applications of an environmental pathogen Giardia lamblia. Our achievements include a radical extension of the excitation wave...

Cao, X, Chen, J, Wen, S, Peng, C, Shen, M & Shi, X 2011, 'Effect of surface charge of polyethyleneimine-modified multiwalled carbon nanotubes on the improvement of polymerase chain reaction', Nanoscale, vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 1741-1741.
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Chou, J, Ben‐Nissan, B, Green, DW, Valenzuela, SM & Kohan, L 2011, 'Targeting and Dissolution Characteristics of Bone Forming and Antibacterial Drugs by Harnessing the Structure of Microspherical Shells from Coral Beach Sand', Advanced Engineering Materials, vol. 13, no. 1-2, pp. 93-99.
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Pharmaceutical drugs for the treatment of metabolic bone diseases lead to a number of side effects due to the their uncontrollable dispersion throughout the body.([1]) Therefore, many groups directed their research to develop devices that are targeted to

Cui, L, Zhang, Q, Mao, Z, Chen, J, Wang, X, Qu, J, Zhang, J & Jin, D 2011, 'CTGF is overexpressed in papillary thyroid carcinoma and promotes the growth of papillary thyroid cancer cells', Tumor Biology, vol. 32, no. 4, pp. 721-728.
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Deng, W, Jin, D, Drozdowicz‐Tomsia, K, Yuan, J, Wu, J & Goldys, EM 2011, 'Ultrabright Eu–Doped Plasmonic Ag@SiO₂ Nanostructures: Time‐gated Bioprobes with Single Particle Sensitivity and Negligible Background', Advanced Materials, vol. 23, no. 40, pp. 4649-4654.
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Eu chelate-doped plasmonic silver-core-silica-shell nanocomposites show greatly increased fluorescence enhancement factors of up to 145 at high excitation intensities, due to significantly increased radiative rates in samples with metal cores. They offer exceptionally high signal intensity, sufficient for single particle detection and compatibility with time-gated imaging offering nearly background-free conditions. A bioassay application is also presented. Copyright © 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Deng, W, Sudheendra, L, Zhao, J, Fu, J, Jin, D, Kennedy, IM & Goldys, EM 2011, 'Upconversion in NaYF₄:Yb, Er nanoparticles amplified by metal nanostructures', Nanotechnology, vol. 22, no. 32, pp. 325604-325604.
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Upconversion (UC) fluorescence in NaYF4:Yb, Er nanoparticles amplified by metal nanostructures was compared in two nanostructure geometries: gold nanoshells surrounding nanoparticles and silver nanostructures adjacent to the nanoparticles, both placed on a dielectric silica surface. Enhanced UC luminescence signals and modified lifetimes induced by these two metals were observed in our study. The UC luminescence intensities of green and red emissions were enhanced by Ag nanostructures by a factor of approximately 4.4 and 3.5, respectively. The corresponding UC lifetimes were reduced ∼ 1.7-fold and ∼ 2.4-fold. In NaYF4:Yb, Er nanoparticles encapsulated in gold nanoshells, higher luminescence enhancement factors were obtained (∼9.1-fold for the green emission and ∼ 6.7-fold for the red emission). However, the Au shell coating extended the red emission by a factor of 1.5 and did not obviously change the lifetime of green emission. The responsible mechanisms such as plasmonic enhancement and surface effects are discussed. © 2011 IOP Publishing Ltd.

Ebrahimi Warkiani, M, Lou, C-P & Gong, H-Q 2011, 'Fabrication of multi-layer polymeric micro-sieve having narrow slot pores with conventional ultraviolet-lithography and micro-fabrication techniques', Biomicrofluidics, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 36504-365049.
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Fast detection of waterborne pathogens is important for securing the hygiene of drinking water. Detection of pathogens in water at low concentrations and minute quantities demands rapid and efficient enrichment methods in order to improve the signal-to-noise ratio of bio-sensors. We propose and demonstrate a low cost and rapid method to fabricate a multi-layer polymeric micro-sieve using conventional lithography techniques. The micro-fabricated micro-sieves are made of several layers of SU-8 photoresist using multiple coating and exposure steps and a single developing process. The obtained micro-sieves have good mechanical properties, smooth surfaces, high porosity (≈40%), and narrow pore size distribution (coefficient of variation < 3.33%). Sample loading and back-flushing using the multi-layer micro-sieve resulted in more than 90% recovery of pathogens, which showed improved performance than current commercial filters.

Idzik, KR, Cywinski, PJ, Cranfield, CG, Mohr, GJ & Beckert, R 2011, 'Molecular Recognition of the Antiretroviral Drug Abacavir: Towards the Development of a Novel Carbazole-Based Fluorosensor', JOURNAL OF FLUORESCENCE, vol. 21, no. 3, pp. 1195-1204.
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Due to their optical and electro-conductive attributes, carbazole derivatives are interesting materials for a large range of biosensor applications. In this study, we present the synthesis routes and fluorescence evaluation of newly designed carbazole fluorosensors that, by modification with uracil, have a special affinity for antiretroviral drugs via either WatsonCrick or Hoogsteen base pairing. To an N-octylcarbazole-uracil compound, four different groups were attached, namely thiophene, furane, ethylenedioxythiophene, and another uracil; yielding four different derivatives. Photophysical properties of these newly obtained derivatives are described, as are their interactions with the reverse transcriptase inhibitors such as abacavir, zidovudine, lamivudine and didanosine. The influence of each analyte on biosensor fluorescence was assessed on the basis of the SternVolmer equation and represented by SternVolmer constants. Consequently we have demonstrated that these structures based on carbazole, with a uracil group, may be successfully incorporated into alternative carbazole derivatives to form biosensors for the molecular recognition of antiretroviral drugs.

Jin, D 2011, 'Background-free Cytometry Using Rare Earth Complex Bioprobes', Methods in Cell Biology, vol. 102, pp. 479-513.
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In the analytical fields of microbiology, disease diagnosis, and antibioterrorism, there are increasing demands for rapid yet inexpensive quantification of rare cells. This has proven to be challenging by the conventional spectral discrimination of using traditional fluorescent probes, since the strong autofluorescence from background cells or particles overlaps spectrally with the probe fluorescence. This is particularly true when the target cell occurs at very low frequency (one in more than 100,000 background cells) representing a needle-in-a-haystack problem. This chapter describes a low-cost solution to overcome this problem by employing a novel detection technology, namely the use of rare-earth (lanthanide) complex bioprobes with luminescence lifetimes in the hundreds of microseconds. Due to this long persistence in lifetime, microsecond duration luminescence can be detected under conditions where fluorescent backgrounds would overwhelm the emission of conventional fluorochromes. The nanosecond duration autofluorescence associated with cells can be suppressed by time-gated detection, allowing detection of long lifetime lanthanide-based bioprobes with minimal background interference. This technology is applicable to a broad range of detection technologies in both cytometry and imaging. In this chapter, we highlight a typical application in the monitoring of the rare microbial pathogens Cryptosporidium parvum and Giardia lamblia against the complex background of concentrated drinking water. We also describe recent nanotechnological developments in the production of rare-earth nanoparticle bioprobes required for this technology. Other applications of rare-earth bioprobes and time-gated flow cytometry will also be discussed. © 2011 Elsevier Inc.

Jin, D 2011, 'Demonstration of true‐color high‐contrast microorganism imaging for terbium bioprobes', Cytometry Part A, vol. 79A, no. 5, pp. 392-397.
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AbstractLanthanide bioprobes offer a number of novel advantages for advanced cytometry, including the microsecond luminescence lifetime, sharp spectral emission, and large stokes shift. However, to date, only the europium‐based bioprobes have been broadly studied for time‐gated luminescence cell imaging, though a wide range of efficient terbium bioprobes have been synthesized and some of them are commercially available. We analyze that the bottleneck problem was due to the lack of an efficient microscope with pulsed excitation at wavelengths of 300–330 nm. We investigate a recently available 315 nm ultraviolet (UV) light emitting diode to excite an epifluorescence microscope. Substituting a commercial UV objective (40×), the 315 nm light efficiently delivered the excitation light onto the uncovered specimen. A novel pinhole‐assisted optical chopper unit was attached behind the eyepiece for direct lifetime‐gating to permit visual inspection of background‐free images. We demonstrate the use of a commercial terbium complex for high‐contrast imaging of an environmental pathogenic microorganism, Cryptosporidium parvum. As a result of effective autofluorescence suppression by a factor of 61.85 in the time domain, we achieved an enhanced signal‐to‐background ratio of 14.43. This type of time‐gating optics is easily adaptable to the use of routine epifluorescence microscopes, which provides an opportunity for high‐contrast imaging using multiplexed lanthanide bioprobes. © 2011 International Society for Advancement of Cytometry

Jin, D & Piper, JA 2011, 'Time-Gated Luminescence Microscopy Allowing Direct Visual Inspection of Lanthanide-Stained Microorganisms in Background-Free Condition', Analytical Chemistry, vol. 83, no. 6, pp. 2294-2300.
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Application of standard immuno-fluorescence microscopy techniques for detection of rare-event microorganisms in dirty samples is severely limited by autofluorescence of nontarget organisms or other debris. Time-gated detection using gateable array detectors in combination with microsecond- lifetime luminescent bioprobes (usually lanthanide-based) is highly effective in suppression of (nanosecond-lifetime) autofluorescence background; however, the complexity and cost of the instrumentation is a major barrier to application of these techniques to routine diagnostics. We report a practical, low-cost implementation of time-gated luminescence detection in a standard epifluorescence microscope which has been modified to include a high-power pulsed UV light-emitting diode (LED) illumination source and a standard fast chopper inserted in the focal plane behind amicroscope eyepiece. Synchronization of the pulsed illumination/gated detection cycle is driven from the clock signal fromthe chopper. To achieve time-gated luminescence intensities sufficient for direct visual observation, we use high cycle rates, up to 2.5 kHz, taking advantage of the fast switching capabilities of the LED source. We have demonstrated real-time direct-visual inspection of europium-labeled Giardia lamblia cysts in dirty samples and Cryptosporidium parvum oocysts in fruit juice concentrate. The signal-tobackground ratio has been enhanced by a factor of 18 in time-gatedmode.The availability of low-cost, robust time-gatedmicroscopes will aid development of long-lifetime luminescence bioprobes and accelerate their application in routine laboratory diagnostics. © 2011 American Chemical Society.

Jin, D, Liu, S, Xu, L & Ye, H 2011, 'Study of a cleaner extraction of pyruvic acid from fermentation broth', AFRICAN JOURNAL OF BIOTECHNOLOGY, vol. 10, no. 64, pp. 14083-14089.

Kabakova, IV, Grobnic, D, Mihailov, S, Mägi, EC, de Sterke, CM & Eggleton, BJ 2011, 'Bragg grating-based optical switching in a bismuth-oxide fiber with strong χ^(3)-nonlinearity', Optics Express, vol. 19, no. 7, pp. 5868-5868.
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Lu, Y, Jin, D, Leif, RC, Deng, W, Piper, JA, Yuan, J, Duan, Y & Huo, Y 2011, 'Automated detection of rare‐event pathogens through time‐gated luminescence scanning microscopy', Cytometry Part A, vol. 79A, no. 5, pp. 349-355.
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AbstractMany microorganisms have a very low threshold (<10 cells) to trigger infectious diseases, and, in these cases, it is important to determine the absolute cell count in a low‐cost and speedy fashion. Fluorescent microscopy is a routine method; however, one fundamental problem has been associated with the existence in the sample of large numbers of nontarget particles, which are naturally autofluorescent, thereby obscuring the visibility of target organisms. This severely affects both direct visual inspection and the automated microscopy based on computer pattern recognition. We report a novel strategy of time‐gated luminescent scanning for accurate counting of rare‐event cells, which exploits the large difference in luminescence lifetimes between the lanthanide biolabels, >100 μs, and the autofluorescence backgrounds, <0.1 μs, to render background autofluorescence invisible to the detector. Rather than having to resort to sophisticated imaging analysis, the background‐free feature allows a single‐element photomultiplier to locate rare‐event cells, so that requirements for data storage and analysis are minimized to the level of image confirmation only at the final step. We have evaluated this concept in a prototype instrument using a 2D scanning stage and applied it to rare‐event Giardia detection labeled by a europium complex. For a slide area of 225 mm2, the time‐gated scanning method easily reduced the original 40,000 adjacent elements (0.075 mm × 0.075 mm) down to a few “elements of interest” containing the Giardia cysts. We achieved an averaged signal‐to‐background ratio of 41.2 (minimum ratio of 12.1). Such high contrasts ensured the accurate mapping of all the potential Giardia cysts free of false positives or negatives. This was confirmed by the automatic retrieving and time‐gated luminescence bioim...

Luan, F, Magi, E, Gong, T, Kabakova, I & Eggleton, BJ 2011, 'Photoinduced whispering gallery mode microcavity resonator in a chalcogenide microfiber', Optics Letters, vol. 36, no. 24, pp. 4761-4761.
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Mao, Z, Ma, X, Rong, Y, Cui, L, Wang, X, Wu, W, Zhang, J & Jin, D 2011, 'Connective tissue growth factor enhances the migration of gastric cancer through downregulation of E‐cadherin via the NF‐κB pathway', Cancer Science, vol. 102, no. 1, pp. 104-110.
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Local invasion and distant metastasis are difficult problems for surgical intervention and treatment in gastric cancer. Connective tissue growth factor (CTGF/CCN2) was considered to have an important role in this process. In this study, we demonstrated that expression of CTGF was significantly upregulated in clinical tissue samples of gastric carcinoma (GC) samples. Forced expression of CTGF in AGS GC cells promoted their migration in culture and significantly increased tumor metastasis in nude mice, whereas RNA interference‐mediated knockdown of CTGF in GC cells significantly inhibited cell migration in vitro. We disclose that CTGF downregulated the expression of E‐cadherin through activation of the nuclear factor‐κappa B (NF‐κB) pathway. The effects of CTGF in GC cells were abolished by dominant negative IκappaB. Collectively, these data reported here demonstrate CTGF could modulate the NF‐κappaB pathway and perhaps be a promising therapeutic target for gastric cancer invasion and metastasis. (Cancer Sci 2011; 102: 104–110)

Shi, X, Wang, Wen, Shen, Guo, Cao & Wang 2011, 'Aminopropyltriethoxysilane-mediated surface functionalization of hydroxyapatite nanoparticles: synthesis, characterization, and in vitro toxicity assay', International Journal of Nanomedicine, vol. 6, pp. 3449-3449.
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Warkiani, ME, Chen, L, Lou, C-P, Liu, H-B, Zhang, R & Gong, H-Q 2011, 'Capturing and recovering of Cryptosporidium parvum oocysts with polymeric micro-fabricated filter', Journal of Membrane Science, vol. 369, no. 1-2, pp. 560-568.
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Warkiani, ME, Lou, C-P & Gong, H-Q 2011, 'Fabrication and characterization of a microporous polymeric micro-filter for isolation ofCryptosporidium parvumoocysts', Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering, vol. 21, no. 3, pp. 035002-035002.
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Xu, B, Tan, D, Guan, M, Teng, Y, Zhou, J, Qiu, J & Hong, Z 2011, 'Broadband Near-Infrared Luminescence from γ-ray Irradiated Bismuth-Doped Y4GeO8 Crystals', Journal of The Electrochemical Society, vol. 158, no. 9, pp. G203-G203.
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Broadband near-infrared emission centered at 1155 nm with full width at half maximum over 300 nm has been observed in c-ray irradiated bismuth-doped Y4GeO8 crystals. The luminescence was bleached completely after thermal treatment at 350C for 2 h. Absorption spectra, electron spin resonance spectra, Raman spectra, excitation and emission spectra indicate that valence state change of bismuth was induced by c-ray irradiation, and 3 P1 ! 3 P0 transition of Biþ ions is responsible for the near-infrared emission. The effect of Bi concentration on the luminescence properties of c-ray irradiated samples was also discussed.

Xu, B, Zheng, W, Jin, D, Ding, W, Lou, W & Ramsohok, L 2011, 'Predictive Value of Serum Carbohydrate Antigen 19‐9 in Malignant Intraductal Papillary Mucinous Neoplasms', World Journal of Surgery, vol. 35, no. 5, pp. 1103-1109.
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AbstractBackgroundThe goal of the present study was to evaluate the predictive value of serum carbohydrate antigen 19‐9 (CA 19‐9) in the diagnosis of malignant intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms of pancreas (IPMNs).MethodsEighty‐six patients with pathological diagnosis of IPMNs in Zhongshan Hospital between March 1999 and November 2008 were retrospectively reviewed. Data reflecting clinical characteristics, tumor marker level, and prognosis were collected. The potential predictive value of CA 19‐9 was analyzed by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve.ResultsEighty‐six consecutive patients with IPMNs all underwent surgical intervention. A high level of CA 19‐9 or carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) was associated with more advanced stage of malignant IPMNs. Carbohydrate antigen 19‐9 was significant for judging malignant IPMNs in the binary logistic regression model (p = 0.047). The hazard ratio was 1.014, whose 95.0% confidence interval was 0.91–1.028. Receiver operating characteristic analysis showed that the serum CA 19‐9 level had good predictive value for malignant or invasive IPMNs, postoperative survival, and disease‐specific recurrence. The area under the curve (AUC) was 0.856, 0.893, 0.815, and 0.857 (p < 0.05), respectively. According to the follow‐up, mean survival time for groups with CA 19‐9 > 63.60 U/ml was dramatically shorter than that for groups with CA 19‐9 ≤ 63.60 U/ml (57.38 ± 2.85 versus 29.24 ± 5.82 [months]; p < 0.01).ConclusionsSerum CA 19‐9 level has good predictive value for malignant or invasive IPMNs. Patients with CA 19‐9 > 63.60 U/ml had poor postoperative prognosis in IPMN...

Xu, B, Zhou, S, Guan, M, Tan, D, Teng, Y, Zhou, J, Ma, Z, Hong, Z & Qiu, J 2011, 'Unusual luminescence quenching and reviving behavior of Bi-doped germanate glasses', Optics Express, vol. 19, no. 23, pp. 23436-23436.
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Here for the first time, we report an unusual annealing temperature dependent near-infrared (NIR) luminescence quenching and reviving behavior in Bi-doped MgO-Al2O3-GeO2 glasses. Systematic characterizations of the samples by using differential thermal analysis (DTA), photoluminescence and absorption spectra, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) indicate that this phenomenon is associated with the reversible reaction of Bi+ and Bi0 initiated by the change of local glass structure. Excitingly, wavelength tunable luminescence is also observed and it can be ascribed to selective excitation of active Bi+ center in different sites. These results not only open a new way for controlling luminescence properties of main group elements in glass but also provide great value for improving practical active-fiber drawing process.

Zhang, Y, He, J, Zhu, Y, Chen, H & Ma, H 2011, 'Directly observed Au–S bond breakage due to swelling of the anchored polyelectrolyte', Chem. Commun., vol. 47, no. 4, pp. 1190-1192.
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Zhu, Y, Lv, B, Zhang, P & Ma, H 2011, 'Swelling induced Au–S bond breakage is determined by the molecular composition of surface tethered copolymers—carboxylated poly(OEGMA-r-HEMA)', Chemical Communications, vol. 47, no. 35, pp. 9855-9855.
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Deng, W, Jin, D, Drozdowicz-Tomsia, K, Yuan, J, Wu, J & Goldys, EM 1970, 'Plasmonic Ag/SiO 2 composite nanoparticles doped with europium chelate and their metal enhanced fluorescence', SPIE Proceedings, SPIE BiOS, SPIE, USA.
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We report silver nanostructure-enhanced fluorescence of a europium (Eu) chelate, BHHCT-Eu-DPBT, which was covalently bound in Ag/SiO2 nanocomposites. This design enhances the europium signal intensity by more than one order of magnitude, and accelerates the decay time from 0.3 ms down to 60 microseconds, at low excitation conditions. These nanocomposites were bright enough to be observed in time-gated fluorescence microscopy under 365 nm LED excitation. The increased brightness and reduced lifetime of such fluorescent core-shell nanocomposites will enhance their applicability for ultrasensitive bioassays and bioimaging, especially with time-gating. © 2011 SPIE.

Goldys, EM, Deng, W, Calander, NP, Drozdowicz-Tomsia, K & Jin, D 1970, 'Nanoscale plasmonic resonators with high Purcell factor: spontaneous and stimulated emission', SPIE Proceedings, SPIE BiOS, SPIE, USA.
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Plasmonic nanoparticles with silver cores and silica shells containing Eu fluorophores near the surface have been produced by wet chemistry method and their spontaneous emission properties characterized. Fluorescence amplification and decreased lifetime is interpreted within the Purcell framework which highlights the role of surface plasmon polariton modes of the nanoparticle. These behave as energy-storing resonators, with values of the Q factor between 50 and 170 at the fluorophore wavelength of 615 nm, and very small mode volumes, in the order of 104 nm3, producing high Purcell factors of over 4000. Comparison of experiment with theoretical calculations by using the Mie theory shows that the values of cavity Q factors are moderated by the nonradiative rate of fluorophore molecules close to metal. The criteria for laser action in such composite nanoparticles are also presented, including lasing frequencies and threshold gain. © 2011 SPIE.

Jin, D, Lu, Y, Zhao, J, Deng, W, Lu, J & Piper, JA 1970, 'Advances in lanthanide bioprobes and high-throughput background-free biophotonics sensing', 2011 International Quantum Electronics Conference (IQEC) and Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO) Pacific Rim incorporating the Australasian Conference on Optics, Lasers and Spectroscopy and the Australian Conference on Optical Fibre Technology, 2011 International Quantum Electronics Conference (IQEC) and Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO) Pacific Rim, IEEE, Sydney, NSW, Australia, pp. 80-82.
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We report time-domain techniques of biophotonics sensing. Our bioprobes have been engineered to emit tunable luminescence across multiple sharp spectra and microsecond-long lifetimes. This offers high-throughput opportunities for cellular-level disease diagnosis at low cost. © 2011 IEEE.

Kabakova, IV, Grobnic, D, Mihailov, SJ, Mägi, EC, De Sterke, CM & Eggleton, BJ 1970, '18-Fold power reduction using Bragg grating-based switch in highly-nonlinear bismuth-oxide fiber', 2011 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics: Laser Science to Photonic Applications, CLEO 2011.
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We experimentally demonstrate a Bragg grating-based all-optical switch in a highly nonlinear Bi2O3 fiber. We achieve 18-fold power reduction for a 6.5 dB switching ratio compared with previous demonstrations in silica fibers. © 2011 OSA.

Kabakova, IV, Grobnic, D, Mihailov, SJ, Mägi, EC, de Sterke, CM & Eggleton, BJ 1970, '18-fold power reduction using bragg grating-based switch in highly-nonlinear bismuth-oxide fiber', Optics InfoBase Conference Papers, Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO), IEEE, Baltimore, MD.
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We experimentally demonstrate a Bragg grating-based all-optical switch in a highly nonlinear Bi2O3 fiber. We achieve 18-fold power reduction for a 6.5 dB switching ratio compared with previous demonstrations in silica fibers. © OSA/ CLEO 2011.

Kabakova, IV, Halliwell, D, de Sterke, CM, Yu, Z, Margulis, W, Fonjallaz, P-Y & Tarasenko, O 1970, 'Observation of frequency shift in a dynamically tuned fiber grating cavity by a beating technique', CLEO:2011 - Laser Applications to Photonic Applications, CLEO: Science and Innovations, OSA.
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Kabakova, IV, Halliwell, D, Martijn de Sterke, C, Yu, Z, Margulis, W, Fonjallaz, PY & Tarasenko, O 1970, 'Observation of frequency shift in a dynamically tuned fiber grating cavity by a beating technique', Optics InfoBase Conference Papers.
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Dynamic frequency changes of light trapped in a fiber grating-based cavity, which is detuned by RF pulses, are detected by a simple, elegant, high-resolution method in which the trapped light beats with the incoming light. © 2011 Optical Society of America.

Lu, Y, Piper, JA, Huo, Y & Jin, D 1970, 'Cytometric investigation of rare-events featuring time-gated detection and high-speed stage scanning', 2011 International Quantum Electronics Conference (IQEC) and Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO) Pacific Rim incorporating the Australasian Conference on Optics, Lasers and Spectroscopy and the Australian Conference on Optical Fibre Technology, 2011 International Quantum Electronics Conference (IQEC) and Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO) Pacific Rim, IEEE, pp. 2011-2013.
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We report a time-gated luminescence cytometric strategy to detect rare-event waterborne pathogens. The prototype system is capable of analyzing a 15mm 15mm slide containing as rare as 13 europium-labeled Giardia cysts within 5 minutes. © 2011 IEEE.

Warkiani, ME, Gong, HQ, Fane, AG & Wicaksana, F 1970, 'Effects of Membrane Pore Morphology on Fouling Behavior of Polymeric Micro-fabricated Membrane During Crossflow Micro-filtration', CLEAN TECHNOLOGY 2011: BIOENERGY, RENEWABLES, STORAGE, GRID, WASTE AND SUSTAINABILITY, CTSI Clean Technology and Sustainable Industries Conference and Expo, Clean Technology 2011, CRC PRESS-TAYLOR & FRANCIS GROUP, Boston, MA, pp. 220-223.

Warkiani, ME, Gong, HQ, Fane, AG & Wicaksana, F 1970, 'Effects of membrane pore morphology on fouling behavior of polymeric microfabricated membrane during crossflow micro-filtration', Technical Proceedings of the 2011 NSTI Nanotechnology Conference and Expo, NSTI-Nanotech 2011, NSTI Nanotechnology Conference and Expo, CRC PRESS-TAYLOR & FRANCIS GROUP, Boston, MA, pp. 569-572.
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The effects of the membrane pore geometry on the fouling mechanism of high-flux polymeric micro-fabricated membranes were studied using latex particles with different sizes and concentrations. The micro-fabricated membranes are made of a thin layer SU-8 photoresist with smooth surface and well defined slotted (or circular) pores using dissolving mold technique. For particles larger than the membrane pore size, the fouling mechanism was pore blockage followed by cake filtration while pore narrowing was the dominant mechanism when the particles were smaller than the membrane pore size. Filtration with slotted membrane offers some interesting advantages over conventional filtration with circular pores. The initial rate of flux decline was slower for the membrane with slotted pores compared to the membrane with circular pores since the initial particle deposition only covered a small fraction of the slits. The flow resistance is also much lower for the slotted membrane compare to the circular membrane.

Wen, S-H, Zheng, F-Y & Shi, X-Y 1970, 'Improved Biocompatibility of Polyethyleneimine Modified with Acetamide, Hydroxyl, Carboxyl Groups and PEG Chains', 2011 INTERNATIONAL FORUM ON BIOMEDICAL TEXTILE MATERIALS, PROCEEDINGS, International Forum on Biomedical Textile Materials, DONGHUA UNIV PRESS, Donghua Univ, Shanghai, PEOPLES R CHINA, pp. 189-193.

Zhao, J, Piper, JA, Dawes, JM, Jin, D & Goldys, EM 1970, 'Mechanisms of size-dependent lifetime quenching in luminescent upconverting colloidal NaYF<inf>4</inf>:Yb, Er nanocrystals', 2011 International Quantum Electronics Conference (IQEC) and Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO) Pacific Rim incorporating the Australasian Conference on Optics, Lasers and Spectroscopy and the Australian Conference on Optical Fibre Technology, 2011 International Quantum Electronics Conference (IQEC) and Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO) Pacific Rim, IEEE, Sydney, NSW, Australia, pp. 384-386.
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Upconversion decay rates in colloidal NaYF 4:Yb, Er nanocrystals for biolabelling depend on nanoparticle size. Lifetime dependence on various quenching mechanisims is explained using rate equations to describe the evolution of upconverting green and red luminescence. © 2011 IEEE.