Light has profoundly impacted modern medicine and healthcare, with numerous luminescent agents and imaging techniques currently being used to assess health and treat diseases. As an emerging concept in luminescence, aggregation-induced emission (AIE) has shown great potential in biological applications due to its advantages in terms of brightness, biocompatibility, photostability, and positive correlation with concentration. This review provides a comprehensive summary of AIE luminogens applied in imaging of biological structure and dynamic physiological processes, disease diagnosis and treatment, and detection and monitoring of specific analytes, followed by representative works. Discussions on critical issues and perspectives on future directions are also included. This review aims to stimulate the interest of researchers from different fields, including chemistry, biology, materials science, medicine, etc., thus promoting the development of AIE in the fields of life and health.

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Three branched molecules (T1-T3) were synthesized through simple step to realize or enhance 2PA in aggregates. Spectra data showed that one-and two-branched molecule (T1 and T2) owned the remarkable AIE properties, which came from the formation of J-aggregation because of their partial planarization in aggregation state. SEM and DLS illustrated that the ordered aggregation and the small particle size had important influence on fluorescence emission. The open aperture Zscan experiments showed that T1 and T2 possessed excellent 2PA properties under aggregation state. The largest 2PA cross section was 8314 GM for T2 in aggregates, which was higher about 13-fold than that in pure solution. All the results displayed that the compounds could obtain the outstanding 2PA performance by adjusting their structure rationally or changing state, which could provide reference for preparing the strong 2PA compounds.Three branched dipole molecules (T1-T3) were designed and synthesized. Spectra data showed that one-and two-branched molecule (T1 and T2) owned remarkable AIE properties, which came from the formation of J-aggregation because of their partial planarization in aggregation state. The open aperture Z-scan experiments showed that T1 and T2 possessed excellent 2PA properties under aggregation state and the largest 2PA cross section was 8314 GM for T2 in aggregates, which was higher about 13-fold than that in pure DMF solution.