Author(s): Daniel Jensen, Caitlin West
Mentor(s): Ming Yu
Institution UVU
Quantum dots have been utilized in many technological applications due to their small size and unique optical properties, with proposed biomedical applications for detecting small quantities of biomarkers, allowing for earlier disease detection. Urine is a prime candidate for the determination of numerous diseases, particularly diseases of the kidney. To create an assay for urine using quantum dots, the interactions with each compound must be known. The major constituent of human urine is a carbonamide compound known as urea. As the primary component in urine, understanding urea’s interaction with quantum dots is of significant importance in the development of assays that can detect protein biomarkers in urine samples with accuracy. This research investigated the influence of urea on protein biomarker detection by quantum dots. A BioTek microplate reader was utilized to detect the resulting fluorescence of the quantum dots, and subsequent data analysis was performed to determine the extent of urea’s interference in various urea concentrations.