Modern Synthetic Avenues for the Preparation of Functional Fluorophores

Biomedical research relies on the fast and accurate profiling of specific biomolecules and cells in a non-invasive manner. Functional fluorophores are powerful tools for such studies. As these sophisticated structures are often difficult to access through conventional synthetic strategies, new chemical processes have been developed in the past few years. In this Minireview, we describe the most recent advances in the design, preparation, and fine-tuning of fluorophores by means of multicomponent reactions, C-H activation processes, cycloadditions, and biomolecule-based chemical transformations.