Tracking the Intracellular Dynamics of Transferrin-labeled QDs in Living Panc-1 Cells

We have used Quantum dots (QD) bioconjugated with Transferrin (Tf) as targeted luminescent probes to label pancreatic cancer cells, and have employed a confocal microscope to localize the distribution and track the dynamics of QD-Tf nanocomplexes. In this paper, we present our recent results on QD-Tf tracking and vesicle imaging, including quasi-real-time visualization of QD-Tf transport inside cells using a tracking algorithm. This work demonstrates that we have a potentially useful method for discovering the molecular delivery mechanism inside living cells by utilizing the QDs bioconjugates in combination with our tracking algorithm.