Fluorophore Multimerization as an Efficient Approach towards Bright Protein Labels
Thorge Reiber, Oleksandr Zavoiura, Christian Dose, Dmytro A. Yushchenko
Abstract
Abstract Cell analysis techniques like flow cytometry and fluorescence microscopy are widely used to explore cells in real‐time and provide important insights into a variety of cellular processes. These techniques require bright and specific staining reagents to generate strong fluorescence signal and enable reliable read‐out, making the choice of fluorescent labels a key aspect of experimental design. Much research has been done in the field of fluorophore development to generate bright small‐molecule dyes, fluorescent proteins, and emitting nanoparticles. However, it remains challenging to modify biomolecules with multiple emitters and avoid self‐quenching of such fluorophores at the same time. Herein, we present advances in multimerization‐based methods for the generation of fluorescent labels with high brightness and discuss their advantages and limitations in the context of flow cytometry and fluorescence microscopy applications.