The Polymer Society of Korea

Abstract

Light-activated phototherapy is a noninvasive and selective treatment modality for cancer and other diseases. Inorganic and organic-inorganic hybrid nanomaterials capable of converting photon energy into therapeutic effects often potentiate proper delivery of photomedicine to the target tissues/cells, as well as another intriguing effect on the photophysical properties; i.e., smart control of the light-matter interactions in the assembly can switch the phototherapeutic activity on demand, enabling safer and more precise phototherapy. In this presentation, our recent results on multi-component and hierarchically assembled photomedicine approaches at the nanoscale will be introduced, including plasmonic and photon-upconverting hybrid nanomaterials with versatile photonic attributes, such as photothermal, photocatalytic, photoechogenic effects, potentiating effective and sophisticated theranostic applications.