UM Biophysics Faculty | Raoul Kopelman

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Raoul Kopelman

Biochemical and Biophysical Nano-Sensors and Nano-Actuators for Live Cell Imaging, Diagnostics, and Therapy

Ph.D., Columbia University

Dept: Chemistry, Physics, Applied Physics, Biological Nanotechnology Center, Medical School

Office Address: 4744 Chemistry

Phone: (734) 764-7541

Email: kopelman@umich.edu

Research Group

Our group includes students of analytical chemistry, biomedical engineering, physical chemistry, chemical biology, materials chemistry, biophysics and applied physics. The problems range from the theoretical, such as stochastic formalisms and supercomputer simulations related to the patterns of reaction fronts in capillaries, to the applied, such as intracellular biochemical and biophysical nano-sensors, energy transducer supermolecules (artificial photosynthetic antenna), and chemical measurements in brain cells, in collaboration with researchers from Neurotoxicology and the Medical School. The most recent work involves novel molecular nano-devices for the early detection and therapy of cancer, based on relativistic quantum mechanics on one hand and collaboration with drug companies on the other hand.

Our lab has produced the world's smallest light sources, the smallest voltmeters and viscometers, and the smallest and fastest chemical sensors. This enables optical, spectral, electrical, mechanical and chemical imaging on a nanometer scale. Novel fiber-optic and nano-sphere biosensors (for pH, calcium, potassium, sodium, copper, chloride, nitrite, nitric oxide, glucose, oxygen and singlet oxygen) reduce the sample volume and detection limit a billion-fold, and simultaneously the response time by a factor of a thousand. These sensors have been used to monitor biological processes, e.g., organogenesis in live rat-embryos, as well as pathogenic processes due to chemical pollution or poisons. Investigations are also performed on the primary chemical processes inside single neuron and cancer cells. Our recent molecularly targeted in-vivo nano-devices detect (with MRI) and kill (photo-dynamically) tumor cells. These virus-sized devices, made of multifunctional nanoparticles, have been demonstrated to diagnose and even cure human brain cancer transplanted into rats.

Awards
Richard Smalley Distinguished University of Michigan Professor of Chemistry, Physics, Applied Physics, 2006
American Chemical Society Spectrochemistry Award, 2005
Collegiate Inventors Grand Prize (together with Ph.D student, Jeff Anker), 2002

Representative Publications

Magnetically Modulated Optical Nanospheres (MagMOONS) for Detection and Quantification of Biologically Important Ions Against the Natural Background Fluorescence of Intracellular Environments, T.G. Roberts, J.N. Anker and R. Kopelman, J. of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 293, 715-724 (2005).

Photodynamic Characterization and in vitro Application of Methylene Blue Containing Nanoparticle Platforms, W. Tang, R. Kopelman, H. Xu and M. Philbert, Photochemistry and Photobiology 81, 242-249 (2005).

Multifunctional Nanoparticle Platforms for In Vivo MRI Enhancement and Photodynamic Therapy of a Rat Brain Cancer, R. Kopelman, M. Philbert, Y.-E.L. Koo, B.A. Moffat, G.R. Reddy, P. McConville, D.E.Hall, T.L. Chenevert, M.S. Bhojani, S.M. Buck, A. Rehemtulla and B.D. Ross, J. of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 293, 404-410 (2005).

Cu⁺ and Cu²⁺ Sensitive PEBBLE Fluorescent Nanosensors Using Ds Red as the Recognition Element, J. P. Sumner, N. Westerberg, A.K. Stoddard, C.A. Fierke and R. Kopelman , Sensors and Actuators B 113, 760-767 (2005).

Magnetic Microdrill as a Modulated Fluorescent pH Sensor, B.H. McNaughton, J.N. Anker and R. Kopelman, J. of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 293, 696-701 (2005).

Ratiometric Fiber Optic Sensors for the Detection of Inter- and Intra-Cellular Dissolved Oxygen, E.J. Park, R.R. Reid, W. Tang, R.T. Kennedy and R. Kopelman, Journal of Materials Chemistry 15, 2913-2919 (2005).

Depletion Kinetics in the Photobleaching Trapping Reaction Inside a Flat Microchannel, S.H. Park, H. Peng, R. Kopelman, P. Argyrakis and H. Taitelbaum, Phys. Rev. E 71, 031107-1- 031107-10 (2005).

Ds Red as a Highly Sensitive, Selective, and Reversible Fluorescence-Based Biosensor for Both Cu+/Cu2, J.P. Sumner, N.M. Westerberg, A.K. Stoddard, T.K. Hurst, M. Cramer, R.B. Thompson, C.A. Fierke and R. Kopelman, Biosensors and Bioelectronics 15, 1202-1208 (2006).

Ratiometric Singlet Oxyen Nano-optodes and Their Use for Monitoring Photodynamic Therapy Nanoplatforms, Y. Cao, Y.-E. L. Koo, S.M. Koo and R. Kopelman, Photochemistry and Photobiology (2006).

Effect of a Slit-Shaped Trap on Depletion Kinetics Within a Microchannel, S.H. Park, H. Peng, R. Kopelman, P. Argyrakis and H. Taitelbaum, Phys. Rev. E 73 (2006).

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Biophysics Research Division University of Michigan 4028 Chemistry Building 930 North University Avenue Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1055 UMsitemaker	Phone: (734) 763-6722 Fax: (734) 764-3323 E-mail: biophysics@umich.edu Last Updated: 5/15/2006 © Copyright 2006 University of Michigan