Research related to the development and application of luminescent nanoparticles (LNPs) for chemical and biological analysis and imaging is flourishing. Novel materials and new applications continue to be reported after two decades of research. This review provides a comprehensive and heuristic overview of this field. It is targeted to both newcomers and experts who are interested in a critical assessment of LNP materials, their properties, strengths and weaknesses, and prospective applications. Numerous LNP materials are cataloged by fundamental descriptions of their chemical identities and physical morphology, quantitative photoluminescence (PL) properties, PL mechanisms, and surface chemistry. These materials include various semiconductor quantum dots, carbon nanotubes, graphene derivatives, carbon dots, nanodiamonds, luminescent metal nanoclusters, lanthanidedoped upconversion nanoparticles and downshifting nanoparticles, triplet−triplet annihilation nanoparticles, persistent-luminescence nanoparticles, conjugated polymer nanoparticles and semiconducting polymer dots, multi-nanoparticle assemblies, and doped and labeled nanoparticles, including but not limited to those based on polymers and silica. As an exercise in the critical assessment of LNP properties, these materials are ranked by several application-related functional criteria. Additional sections highlight recent examples of advances in chemical and biological analysis, point-of-care diagnostics, and cellular, tissue, and in vivo imaging and theranostics. These examples are drawn from the recent literature and organized by both LNP material and the particular properties that are leveraged to an advantage. Finally, a perspective on what comes next for the field is offered.

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Enzymes are important biomarkers for molecular diagnostics and targets for the action of drugs. In turn, inorganic nanoparticles (NPs) are of interest as materials for biological assays, biosensors, cellular and in vivo imaging probes, and vectors for drug delivery and theranostics. So how does an enzyme interact with a NP, and what are the outcomes of multivalent conjugation of its substrate to a NP? This invited feature article addresses the current state of the art in answering this question. Using gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) and semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) as illustrative materials, we discuss aspects of enzyme structure–function and the properties of NP interfaces and surface chemistry that determine enzyme–NP interactions. These aspects render the substrate-on-NP configurations far more complex and heterogeneous than the conventional turnover of discrete substrate molecules in bulk solution. Special attention is also given to the limitations of a standard kinetic analysis of the enzymatic turnover of these configurations, the need for a well-defined model of turnover, and whether a “hopping” model can account for behaviors such as the apparent acceleration of enzyme activity. A detailed and predictive understanding of how enzymes turn over multivalent NP-substrate conjugates will require a convergence of many concepts and tools from biochemistry, materials, and interface science. In turn, this understanding will help to enable rational, optimized, and value-added designs of NP bioconjugates for biomedical and clinical applications.

The unique optical properties of semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) are highly advantageous for biological imaging and analysis, particularly when combined with Forster resonance energy transfer (FRET). A recent innovation in this area has been concentric FRET (cFRET), wherein QDs are assembled with multiple copies of two different types of fluorescent label. Although multifunctional biological probes have been developed utilizing cFRET, a detailed photophysical analysis of cFRET has not been undertaken, and energy transfer in these probes has been understood only qualitatively. Here, we characterize a prototypical QD-(A555) M -(A647) N cFRET configuration through photoluminescence (PL) intensity, decay, and photobleaching measurements. This cFRET configuration combines a central, green-emitting QD with Alexa Fluor 555 (A555) and Alexa Fluor 647 (A647) dyes that are assembled to QDs through peptide linkers, where M and N are the numbers of A555 and A647 per QD. Following initial photoexcitation of the QD, the energy transfer pathways are QD-to-A555 and QD-to-A647, which compete with one another, and A555-to-A647, which occurs subsequent to QD-to-A555 energy transfer. A rate analysis, calibrated to the conventional QD-(A555) M and QD-(A647) N FRET systems, accurately predicts quenching efficiencies and permits a first approximation of dye/ QD PL intensity ratios in the cFRET configurations. CdSe/CdS/ZnS QDs and CdSeS/ZnS QDs of different sizes but similar emission characteristics are used for these experiments, and they demonstrate the general applicability of the analysis. The interplay between the three FRET pathways and nonideal behavior within this system is discussed with directions for future research. Overall, this study provides a framework and predictive power for the rational design and optimization of novel cFRET probes and biosensors for biological applications. ■ INTRODUCTIONColloidal semiconductor nanocrystals, or "quantum dots" (QDs), are of great interest for biological imaging and analysis. 1−3 These materials are well-known for their bright, spectrally narrow photoluminescence (PL), which is also resistant to photobleaching. 4,5 As recent reviews attest, QDs have been widely utilized as labels for multicolor fluorescence measurements and imaging, single-particle tracking, and superresolution imaging, with applications spanning in vitro assays, cellular imaging, and in vivo imaging. 1,6−8 The chemistry associated with these materials is also well developed: methods for the synthesis of CdSe/ZnS and related core/shell nanocrystals are established, 9,10 several QD materials are available commercially, a variety of ligand and polymer coatings can be used to transfer QDs into aqueous media, 11−13 and numerous methods for bioconjugation have been reported. 11,14,15 The cumulative optical properties of QDs, which additionally include larger one-photon and two-photon absorption coefficients, spectrally broad absorption profiles, good quantum yields, and precise wavelength-tuning of PL through size and comp...

Functional DNA nanotechnology is a rapidly growing area of research with many prospective photonic applications, including roles as wires and switches, logic operators, and smart biological probes and delivery vectors. Photonic wire constructs are one such example and comprise a Forster resonance energy transfer (FRET) cascade between fluorescent dyes arranged periodically along a DNA scaffold. To date, the majority of research on photonic wires has focused on setting new benchmarks for efficient energy transfer over more steps and across longer distances, using almost exclusively organic fluorescent dyes and strictly DNA structures. Here, we expand the range of materials utilized with DNA photonic wires by demonstrating the use of a luminescent terbium complex (Tb) as an initial donor for a four-step FRET cascade along a ∼15 nm long DNA/locked nucleic acid (LNA) photonic wire. The inclusion of LNA nucleotides increases the thermal stability of the photonic wires while the Tb affords time-gated emission measurements and other optical benefits. Time-gating minimizes unwanted background emission, whether from direct excitation of fluorescent dyes along the length of the photonic wire, from excess dye-labeled DNA strands in the sample, or from a biological sample matrix. Observed efficiencies for Tb-to-dye energy transfer are also closer to the predicted values than those for dye-to-dye energy transfer, and the Tb can be used as an initial FRET donor for a variety of next-in-line acceptors at different spectral positions. We show that the key to using the Tb as an effective initial donor is to optimally position the next-in-line acceptor dye in a so-called "sweet spot" where the FRET efficiency is sufficiently high for practicality, but not so high as to suppress time-gated emission by shortening the Tb emission lifetime to within the instrument lag or delay time necessary for measurements. Overall, the initiation of a time-gated FRET cascade with a Tb donor is a very promising strategy for the design, characterization, and application of DNA-based photonic wires and other functional DNA nanostructures. D NA represents an exciting and promising approach to the bottom-up assembly of nanoscale devices for applications such as light harvesting, optical computing, and biological probes. 1−4 As a building block, DNA is advantageous because of its availability, versatility, and programmability. Long lengths of DNA can be obtained from natural sources, then amplified and modified enzymatically, whereas oligonucleotides can be made by solid-phase chemical synthesis or obtained from commercial vendors with terminal or internal modifications such as functional linkers and fluorescent dyes. Complementary DNA sequences predictably and spontaneously hybridize into relatively rigid double helical structures (persistence length ∼ 50 nm), and the rise of the helix (∼0.34 nm per base pair) affords subnanometer control over length. 1,4,5 Many years of research on DNA assembly have led to creation of a toolbox with concepts such as DN...