Fluorophores have transformed the way we study biological systems, enabling noninvasive studies in cells and intact organisms, which increase our understanding of complex processes at the molecular level. Fluorescent amino acids (FlAAs) have become an essential chemical tool because they can be used to construct fluorescent macromolecules, such as peptides and proteins, without disrupting their native biomolecular properties. Fluorescent and fluorogenic amino acids with unique photophysical properties have been designed for tracking protein-protein interactions in situ or imaging nanoscopic events in real-time with high spatial resolution. In this Review, we discuss advances in the design and synthesis of FlAAs and how they have contributed to the field of chemical biology in the past 10 years. Important areas of research that we review include novel methodologies to synthesize building blocks with tunable spectral properties, their integration into peptide and protein scaffolds using sitespecific genetic encoding and bio-orthogonal approaches, and their application to design novel artificial proteins as well as to investigate biological processes in cells by means of optical imaging.
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