Quantum Dot Licenses MIT Patents

HAYWARD, Calif., Sept. 3 -- Quantum Dot Corp. (QDC) has license three new patents from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). QDC will retain exclusive, worldwide license for biological applications for all three patents.

The first is US Patent 6,576,291, for technology for preparing highly luminescent semiconductor nanocrystals (SCNS), the foundation of the process used by QDC for preparing its QDOT products. QDOT quantum dots light up like molecular-scale LEDs to provide illumination in such applications as the detection of genetic targets and highly sensitive measurements of drug efficacy at the cellular level.

The second patent, US Patent 6,602,932, is the first in a series of MIT patents for the encoded bead technology that forms the basis of one of QDC's product lines. The patent covers beads that are encoded using different colors of quantum dots as well as beads encoded using different intensities of the same color of quantum dots. The combination of multiple colors and intensities enables high-level multiplexing of solid phase assays, such as gene expression analysis and single nucleotide polymorphism analysis.

The third, US Patent 6,607,829, covers nanocrystallite materials that are capable of emitting in the near infrared region of the spectrum. These ranges of emission are particularly useful for in vivo tissue.

QDC develops technology to accelerate life science research using quantum dot (Qdot) particles, tiny semiconductor crystals developed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, MIT, the University of Melbourne and Indiana University used as a detection platform for nucleic acids and proteins.
For more information, visit: www.qdots.com