A perspective on bioconjugated nanoparticles and quantum dots

Bioconjugated nanoparticles and quantum dots are among the most exciting nanomaterials with promising application potentials in nanomedicine field. These applications include biosensing, bioimaging, bioassay, targeted drug delivery and new therapeutic agents or method development. Although most of these applications are based on the optical properties of nanoparticle materials such as surface plasmon resonance, surface enhanced Raman scattering and strong photoluminescence, other aspects of nanoparticles such as the catalytic effect and amplification effect associated with the nanoscale dimension have also been explored. This review presents a narrative summary on the use of bioconjugated nanoparticles and quantum dots for biological applications, along with a discussion on some critical challenges existing in the field and possible solutions that have been or are being developed to overcome these challenges. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.