Nature Methods
- 5, 397 - 399 (2008)
Published online: 20 April 2008; | doi:10.1038/nmeth.1206
Monovalent, reduced-size quantum dots for imaging receptors on living cellsMark Howarth1, 3, Wenhao Liu1, Sujiet Puthenveetil1, Yi Zheng1, Lisa F Marshall1, Michael M Schmidt2, K Dane Wittrup2, Moungi G Bawendi1 & Alice Y Ting11
Department of Chemistry, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA. 2
Department of Chemical Engineering and Division of Biological Engineering, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA. 3
Present address: Department of Biochemistry, South Parks Road, Oxford University, Oxford OX1 3QU, UK.
Correspondence should be addressed to Alice Y Ting ating@mit.edu We describe a method to generate monovalent quantum dots (QDs) using agarose gel electrophoresis. We passivated QDs with a carboxy-terminated polyethylene-glycol ligand, yielding particles with half the diameter of commercial QDs, which we conjugated to a single copy of a high-affinity targeting moiety (monovalent streptavidin or antibody to carcinoembryonic antigen) to label cell-surface proteins. The small size improved access of QD-labeled glutamate receptors to neuronal synapses, and monovalency prevented EphA3 tyrosine kinase activation.
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