ABSTRACT
Quantum dots (Qdots) possess unique photochemical properties due to their small size. Qdots have been called artificial atoms in the sense that the material is zero-dimensional compared to the bulk material. Research on Qdots in the biomedical area was focused on using them as fluorescent tags, sensors, and drug delivery platforms. Activatable Qdots exhibit changes in photoluminescence in response to specific stimuli and have been proposed as a platform to obtain quantitative real-time information about biological processes. Qdot pH sensors have been used to detect the pH changes of different organelles in the cell. Their small sizes allow them to be easily endocytosed into the endosome or lysosome compartments. Coupling Qdots to fluorescent proteins is one of the strategy in fabricating activatable Qdot probes for bioimaging.
