TECHNOLOGY: Quantum leap for quantum dots

Nanoparticles may wind up in your medicine chest, on your money


Specks of semiconductors called quantum dots, could soon spread around the world, around us, and perhaps, even inside of us.

A few billionths of a meter in diameter, or 5,000 to the width of a human hair, quantum dots glow fluorescently in a variety of colors. Once strictly a lab curiosity, they can reveal molecular processes inside cells, detect dangerous chemicals and improve the efficiency of solar power systems.

Pioneering work on quantum dots is being performed at Carlsbad-based Life Technologies, at UC San Diego and other local biotech companies and non-profit research institutes.

On Monday, Life Technologies, one of San Diego County's biggest biotech companies, and Palo Alto-based Nanosys announced a partnership to use quantum dots to fight counterfeiting.

The potential market is huge, with the annual trade in counterfeit goods as much as $1 trillion by some estimates.

Under the partnership, the companies would work with manufacturers to place counterfeit-proof markers in electronics, currency, arts and even drug labels. said Vicky Singer, global head of out-licensing at Life Technologies.

Quantum dots can be mixed in ink and printed onto surfaces in a precise pattern of colors, providing a fingerprint detectable under blue, violet or ultraviolet light, Singer said.

"They could be on the (drug) vial, they could be on an outer packet, many drugs are foil-wrapped, we don't anticipate any of them would actually end up in the food, drug or beverage," Singer said.

Huge market

No agreements have been announced yet, Singer said, but talks are under way with potential customers, including foreign governments.

"One of us might work with an electronic goods manufacturer for DVDs. Another might work with Pfizer, and help them with an anti-counterfeiting solution for drugs," Singer said.

Nearly $300 billion in counterfeit goods were sold in the U.S. in 2004, according to a report by New York City Comptroller William Thompson. These include everything from golf clubs made by Carlsbad's Callaway Golf Co. to designer handbags and clothes, watches and software.

Counterfeit drugs are an even more serious threat, as they can put patients' health at risk. Moreover, terrorist groups such as Hezbollah have used counterfeit drugs to finance their operations, according to an indictment, unsealed in March 2006, and obtained by the federal Joint Terrorism Task Force.

Hard to make

Quantum dots, also refered to as nanocrystals, provide a practically forge-proof stamp of authenticity to thwart such counterfeiting, Singer said.

Those wishing to counterfeit the technology would first have to get their hands on these quantum dots, which are available from only a few sources or require expensive expertise to make, Singer said.

Manufacturing methods include lithography, a process similar to that used in making computer chips, which uses light waves or electrons to etch a pattern from a semiconductor material, such as selenium. Dots can also be grown as crystals using chemical methods.

Life Technologies, formed when Carlsbad's Invitrogen merged with Applied Biosystems of Foster City, sells a quantum dot-based product under the Qdot brand for cell and tissue imaging.


