In vivo quantum-dot toxicity assessment.

Quantum dots have potential in biomedical applications, but concerns persist about their safety. Most toxicology data is derived from in vitro studies and may not reflect in vivo responses. Here, an initial systematic animal toxicity study of CdSe-ZnS core-shell quantum dots in healthy Sprague-Dawley rats is presented.

Visualizing quantum dots in biological samples using silver staining.

Quantum dot (QD) based contrast agents are currently being developed as probes for bioimaging and as vehicles for drug delivery. The ability to detect QDs, regardless of fluorescence brightness, in cells, tissues, and organs is imperative to their development. Traditional methods used to visualize the distribution of QDs in biological samples mainly rely on fluorescence imaging, which does not account for optically degenerate QDs as a result of oxidative quenching within the biological environment.

Mediating tumor targeting efficiency of nanoparticles through design.

Here we systematically examined the effect of nanoparticle size (10-100 nm) and surface chemistry (i.e., poly(ethylene glycol)) on passive targeting of tumors in vivo.

Nanotoxicity: the growing need for in vivo study.

Nanotoxicology is emerging as an important subdiscipline of nanotechnology. Nanotoxicology refers to the study of the interactions of nanostructures with biological systems with an emphasis on elucidating the relationship between the physical and chemical properties (e.g.