Sulfur-containing 3,5-disubstituted boron dipyrromethene (Bodipy®) fluorescent probes with improved water solubility were synthesized. A dicarboxylic acid derivative that can be excited by the 543 nm HeNe laser line is very soluble in aqueous solution and retains high fluorescence quantum yield of the unionizable parent molecule. Conversion of the dicarboxylic acid to the succimidyl or sulfosuccinimidyl diester produces molecules capable of labeling proteins with a bright and stable fluorescence signal.Boron dipyrromethene fluorophores (Bodipy ® or BDP) are widely used as probes in biological systems. 1 These molecules normally have good photostability and high quantum yields, 2, 3 but they tend to have low aqueous solubility. 4 The absorption and emission maxima can be tuned to chosen regions of the visible to the near-IR region of the electromagnetic spectrum by varying the substituents on the dipyrromethene chromophore. 5-9 Lowering the energy of the absorption maximum often involves addition on unsaturated or aromatic systems, 10, 11 which decreases their aqueous solubility, thereby limiting their utility as biological probes.Recently efforts have been made to increase the aqueous solubility of BDPs. Burgess' group has shown that addition of a sulfonate group to the 2-and 6-positions increases aqueous solubility without sacrificing quantum yield. 4 They have also made water soluble BDPs for covalent modification of biomolecules and cassettes for energy transfer by appending sulfonic acids to the BDP core and adding carboxylic acid-containing tethers. 12, 13 Niu et al. have taken a different approach. They attached hydrophilic molecules containing multiple ionizable groups to various positions on the parent molecule. 14,15 In some cases aqueous concentrations of 100 -750 μM could be obtained.The objective of this work was to make BDP derivatives that fluoresce at long wavelength, are soluble in aqueous solution and can be used for protein labeling. The molecules are based on the 3,5-disubstituted BDP's of Rohand et al., 9 which are easy to synthesize and whose absorption and emission maxima can be tuned by altering the nature of the functional group. 16,17 The sulfur-substituted compounds possessed the best properties for this type of label: absorption maximum near the HeNe 543 nm line and good quantum yield in both polar and apolar environments. 13,18 Reported here is the synthesis and characterization of water soluble BDPs suitable for biological applications. Publisher's Disclaimer: This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. Syntheses of the 3,5-substituted BDPs are presented ...