Our group has discovered that hypochlorous acid (HOCl), commonly encountered as the active ingredient in household bleach, is able to rapidly quench the fluorescence emission of QDs and etch (dissolve) QDs.  HOCl is a 'biologically relevant' molecule: as a powerful germicidal agent, it is used in the body by some leukocytes (white blood cells) to kill pathogens and malfunctioning host cells that are phagocytosed (eaten).  HOCl may also be involved in the oxidation of LDL cholesterol ('bad' cholesterol), a step in the progression of heart disease.  It has been known through the work of other researchers that hydrogen peroxide and other reactive oxygen species are also capable of quenching QD fluorescence and etching QDs, however my work has shown that this is a far slower process than HOCl-mediated QD degradation.

My research is centered around the behavior of semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) in the biological milieu, and how the process described above will influence the design and applications of QDs for in vivo and in vitro work.

Publications and Presentation

Mancini, M.C. and Nie, S.  Cardiovascular Nanotechnology: Development of Nanoparticle Agents for Probing Oxidative Stress.  Annual Fall Meeting of the Biomedical Engineering Society, Los Angeles, CA, Sept. 26-29, 2007.

Cover image: Principles of Cellular Engineering: Understanding the Biomolecular Interface, 1st Ed.; King, M.R., Ed.; Academic Press, 2006.

Cover image: Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow in Minichannels and Microchannels, 1st Ed.; Kandlikar S., Garimella S., Li D., Colin S., and King M.R., Eds.; Elsevier, 2005.

Mancini, MC; Kairdolf, BA; Smith, AM; Nie, SM. 2008. Oxidative quenching and degradation of polymer-encapsulated quantum dots: New insights into the long-term fate and toxicity of nanocrystals in vivo. JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY 130 (33): 10836-+. DOI: 10.1021/ja8040477

Kairdolf, BA; Mancini, MC; Smith, AM; Nie, SM. 2008. Minimizing nonspecific cellular binding of quantum dots with hydroxyl-derivatizied surface coatings. ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY 80 (8): 3029-3034.
DOI: 10.1021/ac800068q

2006-2008: Cell and Tissue Engineering Training Grant (NIH T32 GM08433)

1st Place (team): Forbes Engineering Entrepreneuership Competition for the Personally Adjustable Hearing Loss Simulator (PAHLS) senior design project business plan (2005)