Nanoparticles of size 2-100 nm are more and more studied for imaging and diagnostic applications. They have high specific surface area and their mechanisms of diffusion through tissues and penetration into cells differ from bigger objects which are quickly eliminated by the body. Nanoparticles carrying several targeting molecules such as peptides or oligonucleotides are sought. The laboratory has set up such multimodal and dissymmetric nanoparticles.

Nanoparticles are immobilized on a specific material for the supported synthesis of biomolecules such as nucleic acid fragments. Thanks to this material, a good functionalisation of the nanoparticles is obtained and synthesized biomolecules are of good quality. Each nanoparticle can be functionalised with two different biomolecules and/or two different labels, allowing for example mix of fluorescent and radioactive detection.