Over the last year, we have been incorporating and mastering wet chemistry capabilities at LEAD to synthetize nanocrystal structures. We started by refining the synthesis of the classic organically capped CdSe quantum dots. CdSe semiconductor quantum dots can be considered the “drosophila melanogaster” of the semiconductor nanocrystals due to their extensive study. They display notable optical size-dependent absorption and emission properties as well as high emission quantum yields. We have successfully performed synthesis of CdSe nanocrystals under ambient conditions as well as using air-free methodologies using a Schlenk line. We have been exploring other types of nanocrystal structures and refining purification methodologies that allow us to synthesize highly monodisperse nanocrystals suitable to serve as diagnostic tools.