Cadmium selenium Quantum Dots (QDs) are metal nanoparticles that fluoresce in a variety of colors determined by their size. QDs are solid state structures made of semiconductors or metals that confine a countable, small number of electrons into a small space. The confinement of electrons is achieved by the placement of some insulating material(s) around a central, well conducted region. Coupling QDs with antibodies can be used to make spectrally multiplexed immunoassays that test for a number of microbial contaminants using a single test. n/a