Advance in real-time and dynamic biotracking and bioimaging based on quantum dots

New development opportunities for ultra-sensitive, in situ, real-time and dynamic imaging in life sciences are emerging with fluorescent semiconductor quantum dots (QDs), which are of unique fluorescence properties and have been successfully applied in biological labeling and imaging. Nowadays, QDs-based labeling and imaging is one of the most important frontiers in biodetection and bioimaging. In this paper, the related photophysical properties of quantum dots, recent advance in the preparation of QDs-based fluorescent bioprobes and their applications in real-time and dynamic tracking and imaging are reviewed.