title: Recent advances in biomedical applications of fluorescent gold nanoclusters.
abstract: Fluorescent gold nanoclusters (AuNCs) are emerging as novel fluorescent materials and have attracted more and more attention in the field of biolabeling, biosensing, bioimaging and targeted cancer treatment because of their unusual physicochemical properties, such as long fluorescence lifetime, ultrasmall size, large Stokes shift, strong photoluminescence, as well as excellent biocompatibility and photostability. Recently, significant efforts have been committed to the preparation, functionalization and biomedical application studies of fluorescent AuNCs. In this review, we have summarized the strategies for preparation and surface functionalization of fluorescent AuNCs in the past several years, and highlighted recent advances in the biomedical applications of the relevant fluorescent AuNCs. Based on these observations, we also give a discussion on the current problems and future developments of the fluorescent AuNCs for biomedical applications.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Bioelectronics (Chien-Shiung Wu Laboratory), School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, PR China.
authors.forename: Youkun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Bioelectronics (Chien-Shiung Wu Laboratory), School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, PR China.
authors.forename: Lanmei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lai
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Bioelectronics (Chien-Shiung Wu Laboratory), School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, PR China.
authors.forename: Weiwei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Bioelectronics (Chien-Shiung Wu Laboratory), School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, PR China.
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Bioelectronics (Chien-Shiung Wu Laboratory), School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, PR China. Electronic address: xuewang@seu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Xuemei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001672:Biocompatible Materials / Q000737:chemistry*; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes / Q000737:chemistry*; D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry*; D006801:Humans; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D006046:Gold
keywords: Bioimaging; Biomedical applications; Biosensing; Cancer therapy; Fluorescent gold nanoclusters; Surface functionalization