Expanding the multicolor capabilities of basic confocal microscopes by employing red and near-infrared quantum dot conjugates

Background  

Confocal microscopy is a widely employed methodology in cellular biology, commonly used for investigating biological organization at the cellular and sub-cellular level. Most basic confocal microscopes are equipped to cleanly discriminate no more than four fluorophores in a given sample, limiting the utility of this method for co-localization, co-expression, and other multi-parameter analyses. In this study, we evaluated the use of red and near-infrared emitting quantum dot staining reagents to expand the multi-parameter capabilities of basic confocal microscopes.