Quantum dots for live cells, in vivo imaging, and diagnostics.

Research on fluorescent semiconductor nanocrystals (also known as quantum dots or qdots) has evolved over the past two decades from electronic materials science to biological applications. We review current approaches to the synthesis, solubilization, and functionalization of qdots and their applications to cell and animal biology. Recent examples of their experimental use include the observation of diffusion of individual glycine receptors in living neurons and the identification of lymph nodes in live animals by near-infrared emission during surgery. The new generations of qdots have far-reaching potential for the study of intracellular processes at the single-molecule level, high-resolution cellular imaging, long-term in vivo observation of cell trafficking, tumor targeting, and diagnostics.

Peptide-coated semiconductor nanocrystals for biomedical applications.

We have developed a new functionalization approach for semiconductor nanocrystals based on a single-step exchange of surface ligands with custom-designed peptides. This peptide-coating technique yield small, monodisperse and very stable water-soluble NCs that remain bright and photostable. We have used this approach on several types of core and core-shell NCs in the visible and near-infrared spectrum range and used fluorescence correlation spectroscopy for rapid assessment of the colloidal and photophysical properties of the resulting particles. This peptide coating strategy has several advantages: it yields probes that are immediately biocompatible; it is amenable to improvements of the different properties (solubilization, functionalization, etc) via rational design, parallel synthesis, or molecular evolution; it permits the combination of several functions on individual NCs. These functionalized NCs have been used for diverse biomedical applications. Two are discussed here: single-particle tracking of membrane receptor in live cells and combined fluorescence and PET imaging of targeted delivery in live animals.

Quantum dots for molecular imaging and cancer medicine.

Extract: The past few decades have witnessed technical advances that have introduced cell biologists and physicians to a new, dynamic, subcellular world where genes and gene products can be visualized to interact in space and time and in health and disease. The accelerating field of molecular imaging has been critically dependent on indicator probes which show when and where genetically or biochemically defined molecules, signals or processes appear, interact and disappear, with high spatial and temporal resolution in living cells and whole organisms. For example, the use of radionuclide tracers combined with 3-dimensional (3-D) imaging systems such as Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) are now helping clinicians to characterize the molecular status of tumors deep within patients. Other types of imaging probes rely on the bioluminescence and fluorescence of genetically encoded proteins (originally found in fireflies and jellyfish, respectively) or entirely synthetic fluorochromes, or a combination of both. New powerful biological fluorescence microscopes provide the ability to study single molecules within single cells. Multiphoton confocal microscopy has been developed to allow for the capturing of high-resolution, 3-D images of living tissues that have been tagged with highly specific fluorophores.