Bioconjugation of noble metal nanoparticles and their applications to biolabeling and bioimaging

Noble metal nanoparticles are attractive biolabeling and bioimaging materials in biomedicine because of their unique optical properties. The most important purpose of in vitro biolabeling and bioimaging is the selective and specific observation of interesting molecules, substrates, or regions. To reach these goals, bioconjugation of noble metal nanoparticles are used to create novel complexes with unique characteristics for targeting specific molecules. The applications of the bioconjugation of these nanoparticles depend on what substrates are conjugated on the particle surfaces and which functions are provided. This chapter describes the bioconjugation of noble metal nanoparticles and their biolabeling and bioimaging applications.