Qdots Shown to Detect Breast Cancer

HAYWARD, Calif., Dec. 2 -- Quantum Dot Corp. (QDC) announced it has published a paper in the online journal Nature Biotechnology that demonstrates the benefits of its Qdot technology for detecting breast cancer.

Qdot nanocrystals, or quantum dots, are nanometer sized semiconductor crystals that brightly light up biological events.

The paper, "Immunofluorescent labeling of cancer marker Her2 and other cellular targets with semiconductor quantum dots," is based one QDC's collaborative work with Genentech.

"This is the first practical application of the Qdot technology in an important biological system -- specific detection of breast cancer markers. The promise of Qdot conjugates to revolutionize biological detection has now become a reality," said Xingyong Wu, Ph.D., senior staff scientist at QDC and the lead author of the paper. "We have also demonstrated cancer marker detection in live cancer cells, an extremely difficult task using conventional methods," said Wu.

The paper will be published in the print version of the journal in January.

"This work demonstrates how Qdot technology allows the detection of many biological analytes simultaneously, using a range of different colored Qdot nanocrystals," said Charlie Hotz, Ph.D., director of chemistry at QDC. "This range of colors is achieved using different sized nanocrystals. Our unique ability to precisely tune the size of these nanoscale structures, at tolerances below one nanometer is critical."

For more information, visit: www.qdots.com