Nanoplasmonic gene regulation.

This review focuses on the recent developments in nanoplasmonic gene regulations. Types of nanoplasmonic carriers and DNA/RNA cargo are described. Strategies to liberate cargo from their carriers using NIR and enable on-demand silencing of endogenous intracellular genes are reviewed. In addition to inhibitory effects, exogenous foreign genes are also introduced and expressed on-demand using nanoplasmonic optical switches. The magnitude and timing of genetic activities can therefore be systematically controlled on-demand remotely. Equipped with new nanoplasmonic optics to directly probe the intracellular space, quantitative approaches should capture many dynamic activities within living systems that were otherwise previously impossible to control using conventional methods.