The Springer
journal Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry (ABC) has chosen the chemist
Wei Sun (26) as the recipient of its Best Paper Award 2008. Sun is the lead
author of a paper in ABC on developing advanced tools for in vivo biological
imaging. The award, including the 1,000 euro prize, was created by Springer
to help exceptional young scientists establish their research careers.
Sun’s paper demonstrates the excellent resolving power of differential
interference contrast (DIC) in providing depth-resolved information in a living
system in real time. DIC microscopy, a wide-field optical technique based on
light interference, can provide excellent resolution and detectability for nonintrusive
observation of biological processes. Although DIC microscopes are commercially
available, their unique capabilities for biological imaging have rarely been
exploited. Sun and his team recorded a complete endocytosis process of a single
mesoporous silica nanoparticle (MSN) by a living human lung cancer cell. For
the first time, valuable three-dimensional information on particle diffusion
and vesicle formation and transport were extracted as a function of time. This
approach can be employed to study real-time drug release events in living cells
when MSNs or other nanoparticles are used as drug delivery vectors.
Wei Sun is a Ph.D. candidate in analytical chemistry at Iowa State University,
USA. He received his B.S. in polymer science and engineering in 2004 from the
University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, Anhui Province. His
research projects include the application of differential interference contrast
microscopy in analytical chemistry as well as scanning-angle evanescent field
microscopy.
Dr. Sylvia Daunert, Editor of Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry, said,
"The work of Wei Sun under the guidance of Professors Ed Yeung and Ning
Fang represents an important contribution to the field of real-time in vivo
imaging microscopy that, undoubtedly, will help shed light into molecular events.
The keen competition and the quality of the manuscripts considered for this
year’s award are a homage to the excellent research performed by Wei Sun."
Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry is an international journal dealing
with all aspects of analytical and bioanalytical sciences. The journal covers
all fields of pure and applied analytical chemistry and bioanalysis, including
topics at their interfaces with life and health sciences, engineering and materials
sciences, environmental science, earth sciences and others. With a rating of
2.867, ABC has seen the highest growth of the Impact Factor over the last five
years among related journals of analytical chemistry.
Springer (www.springer.com) is the second-largest publisher of journals in
the science, technology, and medicine (STM) sector and the largest publisher
of STM books. Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media, one of the
world’s leading suppliers of scientific and specialist literature. The
group publishes over 1,700 journals and more than 5,500 new books a year, as
well as the largest STM eBook Collection worldwide. Springer has operations
in over 20 countries in Europe, the USA, and Asia, and some 5,000 employees.
The article is freely available online on SpringerLink at
http://www.springerlink.com/content/?k=10.1007%2fs00216-008-2162-1
or can be requested as a pdf.
Posted February 5th, 2009
