ScienceDaily (Dec. 19, 2011) — Testing the effectiveness of new pharmaceuticals may get faster thanks to a new technique incorporating quantum dots developed at the University of Central Florida.
Some drug testing can take a decade or more, but UCF associate professor Swadeshmukul Santra and his team have created an electronic quantum dots (Qdots) probe that "lights up" when a drug it is delivering attaches to cancer cells.
The research appears online in this month's Biomaterials.
A researcher can use a microscope to see where and how much of the drug has been delivered because the probe emits a reddish color under special lighting or via MRI because of its optical and magnetic components.
As the drug testing continues, images can be taken over and over without any loss of optical or MRI signal. Researchers can then measure the size of the tumor and number of cancer cells that "light up" compared with the original untreated tumor.
Source: University of Central Florida (2011, December 19). Nanotechnology may speed up drug testing. ScienceDaily. Retrieved January 9, 2012, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111219152721.htm
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