Aggregation-induced emission bioprobes for cellular imaging, process monitoring and cancer therapy

Abstract

Fluorescence is a simple and important tool for real-time visualization and long-term tracking of intracellular structures and processes. Compared to traditional fluorophores with aggregation-caused quenching (ACQ) effect, aggregation-induced emission luminogens (AIEgens) have advantages of high brightness, excellent specificity and superior photostability, which promise their better applications in biological and medical field. My thesis research focuses on exploration for bio-applications of some novel AIEgens. The main part is cell imaging, especially organelles targeting including mitochondria, lipid droplets and lysosomes. Except for cell imaging, applications in cancer detection and therapy are also developed by taking advantages of the features of the AIEgen and specific cells. Moreover, some significant intracellular processes such as organelles migration and autophagy have been successfully visualized and monitored due to the excellent photostability and biocompatibility of our AIEgens. During my research, some new AIEgens are designed and developed for applications in the bio-medical field.

Date of Award	2017
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology