Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering From Cells and Tissues for Cancer Diagnosis

Monday, November 24, 2014

3:00 pm | Schiciano Auditorium - Side A

Presenter

Mustafa Culha , Professor, Department of Genetics and Bioengineering

The use of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) has been increasingly investigated for the solution several problems in medicine and biomedical applications. The reason behind this increased interest is due to its high sensitivity, rapid spectral acquisition, limited sample preparation step and specificity of the provided molecular information. With these features, SERS can provide valuable label-free information from cell and tissues that can be used for early cancer diagnosis. In this presentation, the use of the technique for the cancer diagnosis from living cells and tissue samples biopsied from the cancer patients is demonstrated. The strength and the limitations of the technique for the goal are also discussed. The author acknowledge the financial support from The Scientific and Technological Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) (Project No: 105T135 and 109T941) and Yeditepe University.

Professor Mustafa Culha
obtained his Ph.D. degree in chemistry under the supervision of Prof. Michael Sepaniak at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville in 2002. Then, he joined in Prof. Vo-Dinh’s research group (Advanced Biomedical Research Group) as a post-doctoral researcher at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (2002-2003) before joining to Schering-Plough Corporation, NJ as an investigator. In 2004, he accepted a faculty position in Genetics and Bioengineering Department of Yeditepe University, Istanbul, Turkey. He is currently involved active teaching and research there. His current research interest includes elements from chemistry, medicine, material science, photonics, and nanoscience and nanotechnology. The utility of spectroscopic techniques such as surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) to shed light onto living-nonliving interactions, development of novel detection and diagnostic tools for medical and biomedical applications, understanding nanomaterial-living interactions to develop novel approaches for delivery and therapeutic applications are ongoing research projects in his laboratories.  He and his colleagues have authored of more than 75 papers in refereed international journals, several book chapters and patents in the area of analytical and bioanalytical chemistry, and nanotechnology. He is the editor of a special issue for Surface-enhanced Raman Scattering of Journal of Nanotechnology, and NanoBio special issue of Journal of Nanoparticle Research. He is on the editorial board of Applied Spectroscopy.