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Biocompatible 3D colloids, composed of a cationic dipeptide building block and functional lipophilic nanocrystals, are fabricated by using a simple and facile method. It is deduced that the electrostatic interactions upon protonation of the cationic dipeptide and hydrophobic attraction are the predominant driving forces for the assembly process. Such assembled colloidal spheres can be well-dispersed in biological media and have no clear cytotoxicity, thus can be used as live cell labels (see figure).
Yan et al. (2008) studied this question.