Engineering Sensors to Investigate the Intracellular Trafficking of Nanomaterials

Nanomaterials are a promising avenue to address issues associated with traditional drug delivery. Drug encapsulation and targeting has the potential to direct cargo to specific cell types, avoiding off-target effects while offering protection to delicate therapeutics. However, our understanding of how cells interact with nanomaterials is lacking. This thesis details the design and synthesis of fluorescent sensors to study the uptake and trafficking of nanomaterials within cells. In addition, a mathematical process is detailed for improving flow cytometry data analysis. Together, this set of tools can be used to improve the understanding of how nanomaterials interact with cells.