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Recent breakthroughs in fluorescence microscopy are producing notable improvements in imaging resolution.[1] These ongoing technical advances should have a major positive impact on the emerging field of cell imaging using single molecule methods, and help merge the subdisciplines of cell and molecular biology.[2] However, the full potential of many of these new high-resolution imaging methods will only be achieved if they employ extremely bright and highly stable luminescent probes that do not undergo photobleaching or photoblinking.

Luminescent probes can be grouped into two major classes; synthetic systems such as organic dyes, inorganic nanoparticles, and lanthanide coordination complexes,[3] and biological systems such as fluorescent and bioluminescent proteins.[4] It is unlikely that any one luminescent system will emerge as the universal solution for all optical applications and each class …