Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS)-encoded nanoparticles are used for bioimaging, on account of their well-defined Raman spectra and biocompatibility, which allow long incubation times with high signal stability and no cytotoxicity. However, reliable analysis of SERS bioimaging requires quantification of the amount of encoded nanoparticles that have been taken up by cells and the effect of subsequent dilution due to cellular division (mitosis). Although methods such as elemental analysis and flow cytometry can be used to quantify nanoparticle uptake, these are both end-point measurements in which a cell population is screened rather than looking at individual cells. In contrast, SERS imaging can be applied at multiple timepoints to the same individual cells without damaging the biological sample. We present the application of both supervised and unsupervised multivariate analyses, to quantify the intracellular amount of SERS tags in individual MCF7 living cells, toward the characterization of cellular uptake in vitro . The obtained results from both methodologies were validated by standard elemental analysis techniques.

Multimodal contrast agents, which take advantage of different imaging modalities, have emerged as an interesting approach to overcome the technical limitations of individual techniques. We developed hybrid nanoparticles comprising an iron oxide core and an outer gold spiky layer, stabilized by a biocompatible polymeric shell. The combined magnetic and optical properties of the different components provide the required functionalities for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS), and fluorescence imaging. The fabrication of such hybrid nanoprobes comprised the adsorption of small gold nanoparticles onto premade iron oxide cores, followed by controlled growth of spiky gold shells. The gold layer thickness and branching degree (tip sharpness) can be controlled by modifying both the density of Au nanoparticle seeds on the iron oxide cores and the subsequent nanostar growth conditions. We additionally demonstrated the performance of these hybrid multifunctional nanoparticles as multimodal contrast agents for correlative imaging of in vitro cell models and ex vivo tissues.