Excimer Molecular Beacon

Abstract

During the detection in complex biological system, similar to other fluorescence probes, the molecular beacons suffer severely from the background signal interference. Recent studies indicated that excimer molecular beacon (EMB) can address the problem. EMB is a dual-pyrene-labeled hairpin DNA structure with large Stokes shift and long fluorescence lifetime, which afford an effective strategy for detection in complex biological environment. In the chapter, the recent development of the research of EMB is presented. Firstly, the general design of EMB, as well as the structure and working mechanism, is introduced. Furthermore, the synthesis and properties of EMB are descripted, which explain its capability of detection in complex environment and high sensitivity and selectivity. Finally, the examples of the different applications are discussed, including nucleic acids and other molecules detection.