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International audience; Quantum dots (QDs) are not only advantageous for color-tuning, improved brightness, and high stability, but their nanoparticle surfaces also allow for the attachment of many biomolecules. Because IgG antibodies (AB) are in the same size range of biocompatible QDs and the AB orientation after conjugation to the QD is often random, it is difficult to predict if few or many AB per QD will lead to an efficient AB-QD conjugate. This is particularly true for homogeneous Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) sandwich immunoassays, for which the AB on the QD must bind a biomarker that needs to bind a second AB-FRET-conjugate. Here, we investigate the performance of Tb-to-QD FRET immunoassays against total prostate specific antigen (TPSA) by changing the number of AB per QD while leaving all the other assay components unchanged. We first characterize the AB-QD conjugation by various spectroscopic, microscopic, and chromatographic techniques and then quantify the TPSA immunoassay performance regarding sensitivity, limit of detection, and dynamic range. Our results show that an increasing conjugation ratio leads to significantly enhanced FRET immunoassays. These findings will be highly important for developing QD-based immunoassays in which the concentrations of both AB and QDs can significantly influence the assay performance.

We report on the proof-of-principle of using semiconductor nanorods (quantum rods; QRs) in homogeneous Forster resonance energy transfer (FRET) bioassays. Terbium complexes (Tb) with long photoluminescence lifetimes were used as FRET donors, and biological recognition was accomplished by biotin-QR to Tb-streptavidin binding. Time-resolved and steady-state spectroscopy were used to investigate varying relative donor/acceptor concentrations and different lengths of polyethylene glycol (PEG)-based surface coatings. Homogeneous bioassays displayed low picomolar detection limits in 150 μL samples, independent of whether 1 and 10 kDa biotin-PEG-SH surface ligands were used. The results suggest that the combination of Tb-to-QR FRET with time-gated detection may become a powerful tool for homogeneous biosensing.