Peptide-coated Quantum Dots

There is little doubt that recent advances in
material sciences and nanotechnology will contribute
to the development of new therapeutics and permit
new discoveries in medical and biological sciences.
Already, nanomaterials such as semiconductor
nanocrystals, also known as quantum dots, have
revolutionized cell and animal imaging techniques.
The stringent conditions imposed by complex
biological milieus demand that these nanomaterials
be stable and biocompatible. Toward this aim, this
thesis introduces an original surface chemistry that
employs custom-designed peptides as an
organic/inorganic interface on the surface of
quantum dots. This peptide coating strategy was
successfully tested on quantum dots emitting from
the visible to the near-infrared spectrum range.
Using the versatile physico-chemical properties of
peptides, a toolkit was developed to functionalize
quantum dots and control their biochemical activity
at the nanometer scale. Peptide-coated quantum dots
were engineered for in vivo animal imaging and
employed to study the diffusion and the
compartmentalization of lipid raft-associated
membrane proteins, one at a time, in live cells.

Autorentext
Fabien Pinaud received his PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular
Biology from the University of California in Los Angeles in

2007. He is a Marie-Curie and an EMBO Fellow currently
      conducting research on quantum dots and single molecule cellular
      imaging at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris.

      Klappentext
      There is little doubt that recent advances in material sciences and nanotechnology will contribute to the development of new therapeutics and permit new discoveries in medical and biological sciences. Already, nanomaterials such as semiconductor nanocrystals, also known as quantum dots, have revolutionized cell and animal imaging techniques. The stringent conditions imposed by complex biological milieus demand that these nanomaterials be stable and biocompatible. Toward this aim, this thesis introduces an original surface chemistry that employs custom-designed peptides as an organic/inorganic interface on the surface of quantum dots. This peptide coating strategy was successfully tested on quantum dots emitting from the visible to the near-infrared spectrum range. Using the versatile physico-chemical properties of peptides, a "toolkit" was developed to functionalize quantum dots and control their biochemical activity at the nanometer scale. Peptide-coated quantum dots were engineered for in vivo animal imaging and employed to study the diffusion and the compartmentalization of lipid raft-associated membrane proteins, one at a time, in live cells.