QUANTUM DOTS: SYNTHESIS, CHARACTERIZATION AND BIOMEDICAL APPLICATIONS

With advances being made in the identification of new targeting ligands, the development of specialized nanoparticles, and the discovery of elegant conjugation techniques, quantum dots-based bionanotechnology will be constantly expanding its list of amazing applications. Quantum dots (QDs) as biological probes have lived up to the hopes of their initial promoters. They will not replace the well-established fluorophores or fluorescent protein-fusion technologies but will complement them for applications needing better photostability, NIR emission, or single-molecule sensitivity over long time scales. Undoubtedly, biologists will catch on to these exciting developments and will find as yet unforeseen applications for this new toolkit, thus enhancing and complementing their existing arsenal of bioimaging tools. The potential applications of quantum dots in nanomedicine are numerous spanning the areas of imaging, therapy, drug delivery, and nanodiagnostics. In the latter area, the most promising applications are tumor detection, tissue imaging, intracellular imaging, immunohistochemistry, infectious agent detection, multiplexed diagnostics, and fluoroimmunoassays. Despite all their promise, quantum dots are still away from large scale use in nanomedicine, pending the resolution of toxicity concerns and regulatory and commercialization issues.