Highly fluorescent semiconductor core–shell CdTe–CdS nanocrystals for monitoring living yeast cells activity

Fluorescent semiconductor nanocrystals in quantum confinement regime (quantum dots) present several well-known features which make them very useful tools for biological labeling purposes. Low photobleaching rates, high chemical stability and active surface allowing conjugation to living cells explain the success of this labeling procedure over the commonly used fluorescent dyes. In this paper we report the results obtained with highly fluorescent core–shell CdTe–CdS (diameter=3–7 nm) colloidal nanocrystals synthesized in aqueous medium and conjugated to glucose molecules. The conjugated nanocrystals were incubated with living yeast cells, in order to investigate their glucose up-take activity in real time, by confocal microscopy analysis.