Lanthanide (Ln) complex have fantastic luminescent properties that makes them very attractive for bioimaging. Classical lanthanide-based luminescent bioprobes (LLBs) require high energy excitation by UV-visible light (300-450 nm), which is absorbed and scattered by the biological tissues and causes photodamage. Indeed, for biological imaging applications, working with both excitation and emission in the biological transparency window (600-1500 nm) is preferred to avoid these problems. Recently, we (IRIG/DIESE/CBM/PMB) have developed several europium complexes with push-pull antennas. They can be excited in the NIR (ca. 700-800 nm) by two-photon absorption and they emit in the red. They were conjugated to a cell penetrating peptide and could be used successfully for biphotonic confocal microscopy imaging of live cells. This Ph.D. project aims at designing luminescent probes for the detection of tumours in small animal models. They will rely on the Europium(III) complex that was used in biphotonic imaging and on a cyclodecapeptide functionalized with RGD motifs, which binds to the aVb3 integrins overexpressed at the cell surface of some kind of tumour cells. These probes will be evaluated for biphotonic imaging on small animal models (zebrafish and mice) et their luminescence (antenna design for higher quantum yields and brightness, lanthanides emitting farther in the NIR, i.e. Sm and Yb) and clearance properties will be optimized.

Supervision :

Olivier SENEQUE (LCBM/PMB) & Didier Boturyn 

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