AIE luminogens as fluorescent bioprobes

Organic fluorescent bioprobes provide robust and powerful analytical techniques for direct detection and monitoring of important biological species and their related biological processes in live samples. In contrast to conventional fluorophores with aggregation-caused quenching effect, aggregation-induced emission (AIE) luminogens (AIEgens) exhibit remarkable photophysical properties such as bright fluorescence in aggregate or solid state, large Stokes shift, excellent photostability, and long retention time in live samples. Benefiting from these advantages, AIEgen-based bioprobes have been widely applied in diverse biomedical applications. In this review, we first introduce the AIE concept and working principles of AIE bioprobes. Then we briefly summarize their applications in biosensing and bioimaging with some representative examples recently reported mainly in our group. The challenge and future development of AIE bioprobes are also discussed and highlighted. Hopefully, this review can inspire more researchers to participate in this fascinating area and expand the versatile biomedical applications.