January 13, 2016.
Andrew Smith
Department of Biomedical Engineering
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
“Fluorescent Quantum Dots for Single-Molecule Imaging of Living Cells and Tissues”
4:10 PM, 134 Featheringill Hall
Refreshments served at 3:45
Abstract: Quantum dots are light-emitting nanocrystals with unique optical and electronic properties that allow long-term multicolor imaging of cells and tissues with single-molecule sensitivity. These nanostructure are composed of multiple inorganic crystalline domains, organic ligands and polymers, and biomolecules, each of which can be independently engineered to tune their optical, physicochemical, and biological properties for specific applications. This seminar will cover recent advances by the Smith Lab in engineering quantum dots to precisely control the brightness of different colors, minimize fluorescence blinking, shrink the overall dimensions, and optimize highly anisotropic materials for unique interactions with cells. Applications in live-cell plasma membrane receptor imaging, cytoplasmic imaging, and quantitative imaging of living animals and pathological tissue specimens will be described.