Fluorescence reporter is the key element of any sensing or imaging technology. Its optimal choice and implementation is very important for increasing the sensitivity, precision, multiplexing power, and also the spectral, temporal, and spatial reso- tion in different methods of research and practical analysis. Therefore, design of ?uorescence reporters with advanced properties is one of the most important problems. In this volume, top experts in this ?eld provide advanced knowledge on the design and properties of ?uorescent dyes. Organic dyes were the ?rst ?uorescent materials used for analytical purposes, and we observe that they retain their leading positions against strong competition of new materials - conjugated polymers, semiconductor nanocrystals, and metal chelating complexes. Recently, molecular and cellular biology got a valuable tool of organic ?uorophores synt- sized by cell machinery and incorporated into green ?uorescent protein and its analogs. Demands of various ?uorescence techniques operating in spectral, anisotropy, and time domains require focused design of ?uorescence reporters well adapted to these techniques. Near-IR spectral range becomes more and more attractive for various applications, and new dyes emitting in this range are strongly requested. Two-photonic ?uorescence has become one of the major tools in bioimaging, and ?uorescence reporters well adapted to this technique are in urgent need. These problems cannot be solved without the knowledge of fundamental principles of dye design and of physical phenomena behind their ?uorescence response.

General Aspects

Comparative Analysis of Fluorescence Reporter Signals Based on Intensity, Anisotropy, Time-Resolution, and Wavelength-Ratiometry
Design of Organic Dyes
Optimized UV/Visible Fluorescent Markers
Long-Wavelength Probes and Labels Based on Cyanines and Squaraines
Two-Photon Absorption in Near-IR Conjugated Molecules: Design Strategy and Structure-Property Relations
Discovery of New Fluorescent Dyes: Targeted Synthesis or Combinatorial Approach?
Organic Dyes with Response Function
Physical Principles Behind Spectroscopic Response of Organic Fluorophores to Intermolecular Interactions
Organic Dyes with Excited-State Transformations (Electron, Charge, and Proton Transfers)
Dyes with Segmental Mobility: Molecular Rotors
Electrochromism and Solvatochromism in Fluorescence Response of Organic Dyes: A Nanoscopic View
Electric Field Sensitive Dyes
Fluorophores of visible Fluorescent Proteins
Photophysics and Spectroscopy of Fluorophores in the Green Fluorescent Protein Family.