Recent Advancement of Supramolecules in the Field of Bioimaging

Abstract

Biological imaging supplies necessary information to diagnose various diseases in the human body. A molecule should meet the requirements like good biocompatibility, strong signal generation capability, and high stability against photobleaching and biochemical degradation to be used as bioimaging reagent. On that note, supramolecular chemistry has shown great potential to successfully visualize target cells or tissues without causing toxicity or undesirable side effects in biological systems. Supramolecular system shows unique physicochemical properties and 3D cross-linked structure, and it also has the ability to undergo reversible host–guest complexation or gel–sol transition which makes them ideal biomaterials in response to various environmental stimuli for applications in a range of biological domains, including bioimaging. Herein, we have mainly focused on the concepts of supramolecular chemistry such as supramolecular gel and host–guest recognition which can be of great use for in vivo bioimaging. This chapter highlights recent developments and trends in supramolecular chemistry-based bioimaging as well as future potential and difficulties. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.