Simple bio-conjugation of polymer-coated quantum dots with antibodies for fluorescence-based immunoassays

A simple procedure for the bio-conjugation of amphiphilic polymer-coated quantum dots with antibodies is described. The formed bio-conjugates are purified from an excess of free antibodies and of free nanoparticles by size-exclusion HPLC and then characterized by fluorescence emission and MALDI-TOFMS. The applicability of the approach is demonstrated for aflatoxin B1 detection.