Intracellular Delivery of Quantum Dots for Live Cell Labeling and Organelle Tracking

Abstract

Several strategies borrowed from the field of gene delivery are adapted to enhance delivery of semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) to the interior of live cells. To traffic QDs to subcellular organelles, QDs were then derivatized with known peptide localization sequences, demonstrating the ability to target QDs to the nucleus and mitochondria (see Figure).