Mechanistic studies of emissive lanthanide complexes for bioactive applications

发光分子可以以非常高的灵敏度检测到单个分子的检测水平，并在化学和生命科学的许多研究中继续取代放射性标签。这些荧光实体应该被设计成化学稳定的，并且必须抵抗灭灭或抑制其荧光的过程。它们还必须能够定位所需的目标，并向观察者发送信息，表明它们在哪里。此外，还需要新的系统，它能发出更持久的荧光信号，携带有关当地环境性质的信息。例如，这些灵敏的探针可以发出2或3种不同波长的光，并且在这些波长发出的光的相对强度指示了选定的生物活性物质的局部浓度。这项工作的目的是了解如何阻止精心设计的具有长寿命发光的稀土金属复合物的发光猝灭。有了高效的发光复合物，这些复合物将被检查它们在活细胞内定位的能力。这可以使用荧光显微镜进行监测，并且将寻找复合物，这些复合物不仅可以寻找细胞的特定部分（例如细胞核），而且还可以在其荧光信号中提供编码信息，告诉观察者该环境的局部化学成分，以及它如何随时间和外部扰动而变化。最终，考虑到这些荧光探针的化学性质与磁共振成像中用作造影剂的相关化合物的相似性，它们可以在体内用于光学成像或光学断层扫描。

Luminescent molecules can be detected with very high sensitivity, down to levels of detecting single molecules, and continue to replace radioactive labels in many studies in chemistry and the life sciences. These fluorescent entities should be designed to be chemically stable and must resist processes which quench or suppress their fluorescence. They must also be able to localise at the desired target and send information to the observer that signals where they are. addition, new systems are required which emit a longer-lived fluorescent signal which carries information about the nature of the local environment. These responsive probes, may for example, emit light at 2 or three different wavelengths, and the relative intensity of the emitted light at these wavelengths is indicative of the local concentration of selected bioactive species. work sets out to understand how to stop the quenching of the light-emission from carefully engineered complexes of rare earth metals that possess long-lived emission. With highly efficient luminescent complexes to hand, the complexes will be examined for their ability to localise inside living cells. This can be monitored using fluorescence microscopy and complexes will be sought that can not only seek out particular parts of the cell (e.g. the cell nucleus), but can also give encoded information in their fluorescence signal that tells the observer about the local chemical composition of that environment, and how it may change with time and by external perturbation. Ultimately, given the similarity in the chemical nature of these fluorescent probes to related compounds used as contrast agents in Magnetic Resonance Imaging, they may used in vivo, for Optical Imaging or Optical Tomography.