Exploitation of new lanthanide technology

This project seeks to develop chemical assays and novel analytical methodology for the determination of selected bioactive species, including tumour markers. The project is based on new chemical technology derived from lanthanide chemistry and is of direct relevance to clinical/biochemical analyses and the development of diagnostic molecular imaging, e.g. for screening of clicial samples for prostate cancer or in urine analysis to monitor metabolite compostion. The key scientific breakthroughs have been made during the course of recent EPSRC project grant support and the project will strive to capitalise on these through licensing and IP transfer agreements with targeted enterprises.Luminescent molecules can be detected with very high sensitivity, down to levels of detecting single molecules, and continue to replace radioactive labels in many applications in the life and clinical sciences. These fluorescent entities should be designed to be chemically stable and must resist processes which quench their fluorescence. They must also be able to localise at the desired target and send information to the observer that signals where they are. The industry requires new systems that emit a longer-lived fluorescent signal which encodes information about the nature of the local environment. These responsive probes, may for example, emit light at two or three different wavelengths, and the relative intensity of the emitted light at these wavelengths is indicative of the local concentration of selected bioactive species. Complexes have been identified that not only seek out particular parts of the cell, but can also give encoded information in their fluorescence signal that tells the observer about the local chemical composition of that environment, and how it may change with time and by external perturbation.