Applied fluorescence in chemistry, biology and medicine [with invited contributions to the 5th International Conference on Methods and Applications of Fluorescence Spectroscopy (MAFS5), held in Berlin/Germany in September 1997

This interdisciplinary book gives a comprehensive survey of the state-of-the-art and on trends in fluorescence techniques in science, medicine and engineering. The main chapters contain extended reviews which are supplemented by more specialized papers describing details and applications. The volume is intended for practitioners applying this technique in their routine work and for researchers in industry and academia, both groups being active in areas such as environmental monitoring, neuro and cell biology, molecular medicine, including gene research, microscopy and immuno-assays, physics, material science or chemsitry. Breathtaking new methods like ultra-fast time-resolved or single molecule spectroscopy and correlation techniques, fluorescence probes, or imaging techniques and their applications in the fields of electroluminescent polymers, visualization of membrane potentials in neurons or fluorescence imaging of the brain are described by internationally renowned authors. Front Matter....Pages I-XIX Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging and Spectroscopy in Random Media....Pages 3-38 Single-Molecule Detection in Biology with Multiplex Dyes and Pulsed Semiconductor Lasers....Pages 39-58 Time-Resolved Fluorescence of Conjugated Polymers....Pages 59-78 Low-Temperature Photophysics of Permethylated n-Heptasilane: The Borderline Between Excitation Localization and Delocalization in a Conjugated Chain....Pages 79-99 Characterization of Membrane Mimetic Systems with Fluorescence....Pages 101-118 Excited State Probing of Supramolecular Systems on a Submicron Scale....Pages 119-136 Three-Photon Excitation of Fluorescence....Pages 137-157 Front Matter....Pages 159-159 Fluorescence Properties of Crown-Containing Molecules....Pages 161-178 Recent Developments in Luminescent PET (Photoinduced Electron Transfer) Sensors and Switches....Pages 179-192 Photostability of Fluorescent Dyes for Single-Molecule Spectroscopy: Mechanisms and Experimental Methods for Estimating Photobleaching in Aqueous Solution....Pages 193-240 Analysis of Chemical Dynamics and Technical Combustion by Time-Resolved Laser-Induced Fluorescence....Pages 241-275 Fluorescence Techniques for Probing Molecular Interactions in Imprinted Polymers....Pages 277-295 Front Matter....Pages 297-297 Advanced Light Emitting Dyes: Monomers, Oligomers, and Polymers....Pages 299-324 Fluorescence Probes in Polymers and Liquid Crystals: Complex Macromolecular Chain Dynamics (Proposal from the Far East)....Pages 325-370 Fluorescence Method for Monitoring Gelation and Gel Swelling in Real Time....Pages 371-387 Photophysical Studies Provide Thermodynamic Insights into Block-Copolymer Micelle Formation in a Selective Solvent....Pages 389-413 Front Matter....Pages 415-415 Fluorescence Microscopy and the Reactions of Single Molecules....Pages 417-438 Solvent Relaxation in Biomembranes....Pages 439-456 Luminescent Lanthanide Chelates for Improved Resonance Energy Transfer and Application to Biology....Pages 457-487 Front Matter....Pages 489-489 Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Microscopy....Pages 491-507 Front Matter....Pages 489-489 Injection Based Heterogeneous Fluorescence Immunoassays....Pages 509-519 Microfluorometry of Cellular and Subcellular Processing in CNS Cells....Pages 521-536 Fluorescence Diagnosis in the Border Zone of Liver Tumors....Pages 537-551 Back Matter....Pages 553-563 The light of the sun - the source of life and a god in ancient times - was always associated with warmth or even burning heat. When man learnt to tame fire, he had another source of light, which was also hot. All the more puzzling for the amazed observer has been the dance of fireflies glimmering in the dark. How can an animal emit light? Or what about the faint glow of walls in some pre­ historic tombs due to luminescent bacteria? This sort of "cold light" is known today as chemiluminescence. A related phenomenon is the aurora borealis with its swiftly moving curtains oflight. This is a special sort of electroluminescence, of "cold light". another kind The basis of "hot light" is the thermal generation of electronically excited states (normally of atoms or ions). The source of "cold light", on the other hand, is the chemical or electrochemical generation of excited states, possible also for larger molecules. By using light instead of chemical or electrical energy, we can generate yet another type of "cold light", the ordinary luminescence: fluo­ rescence or phosphorescence. The possibilities here have increased enormously because we can color-tune the exciting light and gain specificity, and we can modulate it in time or even in polarization opening new dimensions of research and applications. This interdisciplinary book gives a comprehensive survey of the state-of-the-art: from applications and trends in fluorescence techniques in science to medicine and engineering. Written for practitioners and researchers in industry and academia, it covers fields like environmental and materials science, biology, medicine, physics and chemistry. Moreover, it reports on such new and breathtaking methods as ultra-fast time-resolved or single molecule spectroscopy, gives examples of applications in the fields of electroluminescent polymers, visualization of membrane potentials in neurons and fluorescence imaging of the brain. This interdisciplinary work gives a comprehensive survey of the state of the art: from applications and trends in fluorescence techniques in science to medicine and engineering. It covers such fields as environmental and materials science, biology, medicine, physics and chemistry. I. Methods and Trends in Fluoresence Spectroscopy II. Analytical Fluorescence Probes and Environmental Research III. Fluoresence Probes in Polymers IV. Applications of Fluorescence Spectroscopy in Biology V. Fluorescence Techniques in Medicine - A Challenge for the Future.