Over the transom…
Hello Ann,
I was reading your latest post titled “You have got to be kidding me, chapter 837:” about the enzyme Luciferase. This was going to be a rare correction, but it turns out you were right. And it could be worse.
Checking to see if that were true, I came across the paper linked below. Just in case people don’t believe that the Quantum Dots in the vaccine use Luciferases for illumination (because some QD’s don’t).
I highlighted the relevant passage from the abstract outlining how Luciferases are used to illuminate the QD’s.
Creating self-illuminating quantum dot conjugates
Min-Kyung So1, Andreas M Loening1,2, Sanjiv S Gambhir1,2& Jianghong Rao1,31Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford, Department of Radiology and Bio-X Program,2Department of Bioengineering,3Biophysics and Cancer Biology Program,Stanford University School of Medicine, 1201 Welch Road, Stanford, California 94305-5484, USA. Correspondence should be addressed to J.R. ([email protected]).Published online 7 September 2006; doi:10.1038/nprot.2006.162
Semiconductor quantum dots are inorganic fluorescent nanocrystals that, because of their unique optical properties compared with those of organic fluorophores, have become popular as fluorescent imaging probes. Although external light excitation is typically required for imaging with quantum dots, a new type of quantum dot conjugate has been reported that can luminesce with no need for external excitation. These self-illuminating quantum dot conjugates can be prepared by coupling of commercially available carboxylate-presenting quantum dots to the light-emitting protein Renilla luciferase. When the conjugates are exposed to the luciferase’s substrate coelenterazine, the energy released by substrate catabolism is transferred to the quantum dots through bioluminescence resonance energy transfer, leading to quantum dot light emission. This protocol describes step-by-step procedures for the preparation and characterization of these self-illuminating quantum dot conjugates. The preparation process is relatively simple and can be done in less than 2 hours. The availability of self-illuminating quantum dot conjugates will provide many new possibilities for in vivo imaging and detection, such as monitoring of in vivo cell trafficking, multiplex bioluminescence imaging and new quantum dot-based biosensors.
The green text suggests that in addition to being used to record vaccines instead of paper records they can also potentially function as biosensors.
Keep up the good work.
M
