My research interests focus on luminescent nanoparticles and their implementation in multifunctional nanoplatforms for application in biological systems and nanomedicine. We focus, in particular, on rare earth (also known as lanthanide) doped nanoparticles, and exploit their very interesting optical properties (upconversion and near-infrared emission) for the simultaneous detection and therapeutics of diseases such as cancer. In particular, we are interested in harnessing the light from these nanoparticles to trigger other light activated modalities for application in: Thermal sensing and nanothermometry Upconversion, multiphoton, and near-infrared bioimaging Controlled drug release Photodynamic therapyPhotothermal therapy Biosensing And more… To add further “functionalitiy” to these nanoparticles, we are developing new hybrid and composite nanosystems composed of the rational combination of rare earth nanoparticles with other optically stimulated nanomaterials such as semiconductor quantum dots, plasmonic nanostructures, metal oxides, etc. Our laboratory is fully equipped to study all aspects from the synthesis of new nanoparticles/architectures, the study of their fundamental photophysics, to their integration into multimodal nanoplatforms.