The application of a photostable AIE luminogen to detect lipid droplets in live cells

The motivation for the research was the detection of lipid droplets that are important biomarkers for different metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes mellitus. Many commercially available stains/dyes are used to image lipid droplets like Nile red, Oil Red O, BODIPY, etc. Aggregation-caused quenching (ACQ) is the main disadvantage associated with these dyes which can be overcome with a similar structure-dependent but opposite property that is called aggregation-induced emission (AIE). Therefore a new AIE luminogen was developed, characterized, and applied to image the lipid droplets. Many commercially available stains/dyes are used to image lipid droplets like Nile red, Oil Red O, BODIPY, etc. Aggregation-caused quenching (ACQ) is the main disadvantage associated with these dyes which can be overcome with a similar structure-dependent but opposite property that is called aggregation-induced emission (AIE). Therefore a new AIE luminogen was developed, characterized, and applied to image the lipid droplets. The main methods of the thesis were cell culture techniques, MTT assay, and different molecular biology techniques such as cloning, gel electrophoresis, fluorescence, confocal microscopy, etc. I also learned about dynamic light scattering (DLS), solid-state fluorescence, and spectroscopy.