Spectroscopic modulation of multifunctionalized quantum dots for use as biological probes and effectors

SANDRA MISKOSKI, LUCIANA GIORDANO, MARIA H. ETCHEHON, GUILLERMO MENENDEZ,KEITH A. LIDKE, GUY M. HAGEN, THOMAS M. JOVIN AND ELIZABETH A. JARES-ERIJMAN

Proceedings of SPIE

Año: 2006 vol. 6096 p. 1 - 8

Multifunctional nanoparticles, quantum dots (QDs) are being developed as uniquely sensitive tools for elucidating the (bio)chemical and (bio)physical molecular mechanisms underlying functional states, i.e. the molecular physiology, of biological cells and organisms. Here we present a group of strategies and examples for (i) controlling the spectroscopic properties of QDs via Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET); (ii) determining the emission spectra of individual QDs in a population with an imaging spectrograph (ASISpectraCube); and (iii) employing such liganded QDs as nano-probes in cellular studies of signal transduction.