Effective Gold Nanoparticle Delivery to the Retina for Plasmonic Retinal ProstheticstextAlGhosain, Hafithe McreatorDawson, MichelleReaderGray, MarissaReaderLee, JonghwanAdvisorBrown University. Biology and Medicine: Biomedical Engineeringsponsor2019x, 67 p.born digitalThesis (Sc. M.)--Brown University, 2019thesesAbstract of (Effective Gold Nanoparticle Delivery to the Retina for Plasmonic Retinal Prosthetics), by (Hafithe Mohammed AlGhosain), Degree [ScM.], Brown University, May (2019). Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is a disease that is characterized by progressive degeneration of photoreceptor cells. Retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) are left relatively intact in patients with RP, and have been the target of neural prosthetics that aim to mitigate the effects of RP by stimulating RGCs. RGCs are the conduit between the visual cortex of the brain and the eye, it is responsible for conducting visual sensory information to the visual cortex. Gold nano-rod (GNR) assisted near infrared neuronal stimulation is an artifact free method of stimulating neuronal cells with enhanced spatial precision compared to the current golden standard of electrical stimulation. The purpose of this study was to effectively deliver fluorescently tagged GNRs to the retina to target Thy 1.2 on RGCs. We characterized photobleaching effects of fluorescently tagged GNRs after varying light exposure conditions on samples (1 week in darkness, 1 week in ambient light, and an initial measurement) to support the feasibility of future in-vivo studies that may run over the course of 1 week; we found that GNRs can withstand the effects of ambient light exposure for up to 1 week (no statistically significant difference between groups P > 0.05). We characterized the relative diffusional behavior of positively and negatively charged GNRs in samples of extracted bovine vitreous humor via photon correlation spectroscopy ; results suggested that negatively charged GNRs were more suitable for the application (P= 1.079 E40). We utilized sub-ILM injections to deliver GNRs to naked retinal flat-mounts obtained from WT mice (7 weeks old, males). We either injected biotinylated anti-CD 90.2 antibodies via the sub-ILM route, followed by GNR injection (10 X 38 nm or 25 X 87 nm), or we injected a pre-incubated mixture of biotinylated anti-CD 90.2 and GNR solution. Retinal flat-mounts were then imaged using confocal microscopy to observe and qualitatively assess GNR binding to RGCs. Sub-ILM delivery was validated for antibody delivery, but further analysis is required in order to determine appropriate ratios of antibody : GNRs.Retinal ganglion cellsAuNRsRetinitis pigmentosaRetinitis pigmentosa--Researchneural sitmulationretinal prostheticsThy 1.2near infrared neuronal stimulationInner limiting membranesub-ILM injectionretinal deliverynanoinjectorplasmonic retinal prostheticretinal stimulationEnglishRPB2019060310.26300/r5f0-2p25In CopyrightCollection is open for research.