fantastic plastic

QTL Biosystems announced that it is has been awarded a utility patent US 6,743,640 for a fluorescent polymer-QTL [Quencher-Tether-Ligand] approach to sensing target biological agents. […] The platform utilizes changes in polymer fluorescence (polymer “superquenching”) in the presence or absence of a target biological agent.

The patented QTL bioconjugate enables quantitative detection of a diverse range of targets such as enzymes, small molecule ligands, proteins including antibodies and antibody fragments, and DNA. The property altering component of the QTL bioconjugate covers a range of materials ranging from fluorescent dyes to metal complexes and covers electron donors and acceptors as well as “energy transferring moieties.”

[Update:] this pdf file provides some details on their technology.