Single-molecule fluorescence articles within Nature Chemistry

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    A simple and general enantioselective method for the synthesis of non-fused lower carbo[n]helicenes (n = 4–6) is reported. The helicene scaffold is constructed with high enantioselectivity by Pd0-catalysed C–H arylation with aryl bromides. A bifunctional ligand provides a precise chiral environment that allows fine control of the enantioselectivity.

    • Shu-Min Guo
    • , Soohee Huh
    •  & Olivier Baudoin

  • News & Views |

    Therapies that destroy senescent cells could be used to alleviate age-related disease, yet conventional drugs often suffer from low selectivity and unwanted side effects. Now, a photosensitive agent has been developed that is activated in situ in senescent cells, enabling their selective elimination.

    • Yunjie Xu
    • , Jong Seung Kim
    •  & Mingle Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The design of photoactivatable fluorophores—which are required for some super-resolution fluorescence microscopy methods—usually relies on light-sensitive protecting groups imparting lipophilicity and generating reactive by-products. Now, it has been shown that by exploiting a unique intramolecular photocyclization, bright and highly photostable fluorophores can be rapidly generated in situ from appropriately substituted 1-alkenyl-3,6-diaminoxanthone precursors.

    • Richard Lincoln
    • , Mariano L. Bossi
    •  & Stefan W. Hell

  • Article |

    Energy funnelling within multichromophoric assemblies is key to the conversion of solar energy by plants. Now, energy transport between phthalocyanine-based chromophores has been monitored at the submolecular level using scanning tunnelling microscopy, focusing on the role of ancillary, passive and blocking chromophores in promoting and directing energy transfer between distant donor and acceptor units.

    • Shuiyan Cao
    • , Anna Rosławska
    •  & Guillaume Schull

  • Article |

    Super-resolution microscopy has enabled optical imaging of individual biomolecules on the nanometre scale. Now, a new method has been developed that allows active manipulation of single-molecule targets on visualization in a sequential manner. This method, called ‘Action-PAINT’, combines real-time super-resolution microscopy (DNA-PAINT) and photoinducible crosslinking chemistry to deliver a single-molecule cargo with <30 nm selectivity.

    • Ninning Liu
    • , Mingjie Dai
    •  & Peng Yin

  • Article |

    Super-resolution fluorescence microscopy techniques can interrogate entities that fluoresce; however, most chemical or biological processes do not involve fluorescent species. Now, the incorporation of a competitive reaction into a single-molecule fluorescence detection scheme has been shown to enable quantitative super-resolution imaging of non-fluorescent reactions.

    • Xianwen Mao
    • , Chunming Liu
    •  & Peng Chen

  • News & Views |

    The flow of energy in Earth's primary light harvesters — photosynthetic pigment–protein complexes — needs to be heavily regulated, as the sun's energy supply can vary over many orders of magnitude. Observing hundreds of individual light-harvesting complexes has now provided important insights into the machinery that regulates this process.

    • Peter J. Walla

  • Article |

    DNA nanotubes are attractive building blocks for the assembly of complex arrays. An efficient solid-state synthesis for producing surface-grafted, robust nanotubes has now been devised. Rungs are incorporated in a stepwise manner so that each one is addressable. Using fluorescent tags, the nanotube growth was visualized at the single-molecule level.

    • Amani A. Hariri
    • , Graham D. Hamblin
    •  & Gonzalo Cosa

  • News & Views |

    Metallic nanoparticles enable the control of optical fields at the nanometre scale, enhancing the absorption and emission of local emitters. Now, using the self-assembling properties of DNA, functional nanoantennas have been developed that comprise a versatile and robust assembly of gold nanoparticles and emitters.

    • Gonzalo Cosa

  • News & Views |

    Monitoring the dynamics of a single molecule is impeded by their motion in solution, and immobilizing them without changing their properties is problematic. By using a trapping method that counteracts a molecule's Brownian motion, the complex dynamics of a fluorescent protein, allophycocyanin, have been investigated.

    • Peter Dedecker
    •  & Johan Hofkens

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