Gene silencer and quantum dots reduce protein production to a whisper

Each of these jars contains the same substance. The difference is the size of the particles. Quantum dots, suspended in liquid, absorb white light and then reemit it in a... Click here for more information.

More than 15 years ago scientists discovered a way to stop a particular gene in its tracks. The Nobel Prize-winning finding holds tantalizing promise for medical science, but so far it has been difficult to apply the technique, known as RNA interference, in living cells.

Now scientists at the University of Washington in Seattle and Emory University in Atlanta have succeeded in using nanotechnology known as quantum dots to address this problem. Their technique is 10 to 20 times more effective than existing methods for injecting the gene-silencing tools, known as siRNA, into cells.

A fluorescent image of the cell taken 15 minutes after introducing the quantum dot-siRNA complex. At this early stage the particles are in the cell membrane. Click here for more information.

"We believe this is going to make a very important impact to the field of siRNA delivery," said Xiaohu Gao, a UW assistant professor of bioengineering and co-author of a study published online this week in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.