Tegan Parks, Utah Valley University
This research used quantum dots to detect the presence of biomarker proteins in order to develop a method for early cancer diagnostics. Two proteins have been studied specifically to interact with the QDs. The proteins are BSA and Lysozyme. By studying the proteins affect on the fluorescence emission of QDs, a relationship has been found. QDs when mixed with BSA had increased fluorescence emission, whereas when mixed with lysozyme the fluorescence signals were quenched. The results show an interesting comparison between the interactions of QDs with BSA and with Lysozyme. The BSA mixture provided a positive logarithmic trend, due to the enhancement. The Lysozyme provided a negative trend when mixed with the QDs, due to the quenching of the signals. The study generated useful data to aid in developing bioassays for detecting protein biomarkers in early cancer diagnostics.