Organic Molecules for Optical Imaging

This chapter introduces a series of specially designed organic-based dyes and probes that are useful in bioimaging and in vitro/in vivo chemosensing to reveal the locales and conditions of specific subcellular structures, the activity of selected cytochemical processes, and the in vitro syntheses, trafficking, interactions, and degradations of specific biomolecules. It looks at the basic building blocks of advanced molecular imaging and sensing tools: the numerous chromophores and fluorophores that have been developed over the last few centuries. The chapter presents a brief introduction to the fundamental principles of various fluorescent techniques that are commonly applied in bioimaging and in vitro and in vivo bio- and chemosensing. It then discusses two/multi-photon induced emission and time-resolved imaging. Bioluminescence imaging has become a powerful methodology for molecular imaging of small laboratory animals, which allows the study of ongoing biological processes in vivo. In biomedical applications, photoacoustic imaging offers a number of advantages.