Evident Technologies of the US has started manufacturing biotinylated quantum dot fluorophores that are claimed to offer the widest range of wavelengths, from blue to near infrared (NIR), of any product on the market.
Quantum dots are semiconductor nanocrystals that fluoresce when excited by a light source, emitting bright colours that can identify and track properties and processes in various biological applications.
They have significant advantages over traditional fluorophores, particularly in terms of the brightness of the fluorescent signal they can generate, their range of colours and their stability, and have applications in cell biology, drug discovery, cancer research and many other fields.
Clint Ballinger, Evident's chief executive, said that the availability of Biotin EviFluor would allow product developers to create entirely new forms of assays. Assays that let scientists observe more things at once, at a smaller scale, for longer periods of time and with greater sensitivity than with conventional reagents should greatly speed up the rate at which the functioning of biological systems can be analysed.
"The ability to work with material that emits in the NIR decreases background noise in living cell applications. This opens up new opportunities in many life science fields," commented Jeff Li, a researcher at Harvard University in the US.
Using the products, endogenous biotin is first blocked with excess unlabeled streptavidin (a biotin-binding protein) and excess unlabeled biotin. Tissues, cells or other surfaces can then be probed with a biotinylatedm quantom dot labelled oligonucleotide, peptide, or antibody. This preparation can be treated with unlabeled avidin or streptavidin.
After washing, detection can be performed in a variety of different detection platforms depending on your specific application, including microscopy, flow cytometry, microtitre plates, or membrane based technologies.
For more information on Biotin EviFluors, please go to http://www.evidenttech.com/biotin.