Surface ligand effects on metal-affinity coordination to quantum dots: implications for nanoprobe self-assembly.

The conjugation of biomolecules such as proteins and peptides to semiconductor quantum dots (QD) is a critical step in the development of QD-based imaging probes and nanocarriers. Such protein-QD assemblies can have a wide range of biological applications including in vitro protein assays and live-cell fluorescence imaging. One conjugation scheme that has a number of advantages is the self-assembly of biomolecules on a QD surface via polyhistidine coordination.