In vivo NIR-II fluorescence imaging for biology and medicine

A clearer vision for in vivo imaging

Weissleder, R. (2001) · Nature Biotechnology · doi:10.1038/86684 · Cited by 3,839

Near-infrared fluorophores for biomedical imaging

Hong, G., Antaris, A. L., & Dai, H. (2017) · Nature Biomedical Engineering · doi:10.1038/s41551-016-0010 · Cited by 3,048

Second window for in vivo imaging

Smith, A. M., Mancini, M. C., & Nie, S. (2009) · Nature Nanotechnology · doi:10.1038/nnano.2009.326 · Cited by 2,848

Noncovalent sidewall functionalization of single-walled carbon nanotubes for protein immobilization

Chen, R. J., Zhang, Y., Wang, D., & Dai, H. (2001) · Journal of the American Chemical Society · doi:10.1021/ja010172b · Cited by 2,534

Optical Sectioning Deep Inside Live Embryos by Selective Plane Illumination Microscopy

Huisken, J., Swoger, J., Bene, F. D., Wittbrodt, J., & Stelzer, E. H. K. (2004) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1100035 · Cited by 2,370

Nonlinear structured-illumination microscopy: Wide-field fluorescence imaging with theoretically unlimited resolution

Gustafsson, M. G. L. (2005) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.0406877102 · Cited by 2,270

A small-molecule dye for NIR-II imaging

Antaris, A. L., Chen, H., Cheng, K., Sun, Y., Hong, G., Qu, C., Diao, S., Deng, Z., Hu, X., Zhang, B., et al. (2016) · Nature Materials · doi:10.1038/nmat4476 · Cited by 1,778

Carbon nanotubes in biology and medicine: In vitro and in vivo detection, imaging and drug delivery

Liu, Z., Tabakman, S. M., Welsher, K., & Dai, H. (2009) · Nano Research · doi:10.1007/s12274-009-9009-8 · Cited by 1,729

In vivo three-photon microscopy of subcortical structures within an intact mouse brain

Horton, N. G., Wang, K., Kobat, D., Clark, C. G., Wise, F. W., Schaffer, C. B., & Xu, C. (2013) · Nature Photonics · doi:10.1038/nphoton.2012.336 · Cited by 1,505

A route to brightly fluorescent carbon nanotubes for near-infrared imaging in mice

Welsher, K., Liu, Z., Sherlock, S. P., Robinson, J. T., Chen, Z., Daranciang, D., & Dai, H. (2009) · Nature Nanotechnology · doi:10.1038/nnano.2009.294 · Cited by 1,287

NIR-II light in clinical oncology: opportunities and challenges

Zhang, Z., Du, Y., Shi, X., Wang, K., Qu, Q., Liang, Q. Y., Ma, X., He, K., Chi, C., Tang, J., et al. (2024) · Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology · doi:10.1038/s41571-024-00892-0 · Cited by 397

Near-infrared II fluorescence imaging

Schmidt, E. L., Ou, Z., Ximendes, E. C., Cui, H., Keck, C. H. C., Jaque, D., & Hong, G. (2024) · Nature Reviews Methods Primers · doi:10.1038/s43586-024-00301-x · Cited by 392

High-brightness transition metal-sensitized lanthanide near-infrared luminescent nanoparticles

Ming, J., Chen, Y., Miao, H., Fan, Y., Wang, S., Chen, Z., Guo, Z., Guo, Z., Qi, L., Wang, X., et al. (2024) · Nature Photonics · doi:10.1038/s41566-024-01517-9 · Cited by 149

Organic photosensitizers: from molecular design to phototheranostics

Zhang, T., Qu, X., Shao, J., & Dong, X. (2025) · Chemical Society Reviews · doi:10.1039/d5cs00599j · Cited by 149

Molecular Gold Nanoclusters for Advanced NIR-II Bioimaging and Therapy

Baghdasaryan, A., & Dai, H. (2025) · Chemical Reviews · doi:10.1021/acs.chemrev.4c00835 · Cited by 131

Aggregation-Induced Emission Luminogens Realizing High-Contrast Bioimaging

Wang, W., Xin, Z., Su, X., Liang, H., Qiu, Z., Li, K., Luo, Y., Cai, X., Zhang, J., Alam, P., et al. (2025) · ACS Nano · doi:10.1021/acsnano.4c14887 · Cited by 116

An Emerging Toolkit of Ho 3+ Sensitized Lanthanide Nanocrystals with NIR-II Excitation and Emission for in Vivo Bioimaging

Wang, X., Wu, W., Yun, B., Huang, L., Chen, Z., Ming, J., Zhai, F.-H., Zhang, H., & Zhang, F. (2025) · Journal of the American Chemical Society · doi:10.1021/jacs.4c16451 · Cited by 110

Small molecular cyanine dyes for phototheranostics

Zhang, J., Wang, W., Shao, J., Chen, J., & Dong, X. (2024) · Coordination Chemistry Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.ccr.2024.215986 · Cited by 107

An All‐Rounder for NIR‐II Phototheranostics: Well‐Tailored 1064 nm‐Excitable Molecule for Photothermal Combating of Orthotopic Breast Cancer

Yan, D., Zhang, Z., Zhang, J., Li, X., Wu, Q., Gui, Y., Zhu, J., Kang, M., Chen, X., Tang, B. Z., et al. (2024) · Angewandte Chemie International Edition · doi:10.1002/anie.202401877 · Cited by 103

Recent Advances in Indocyanine Green-Based Probes for Second Near-Infrared Fluorescence Imaging and Therapy

Hu, D., Zha, M., Zheng, H., Gao, D., & Sheng, Z. (2024) · Research · doi:10.34133/research.0583 · Cited by 98

NIR‐II Fluorescent Thermophoretic Nanomotors for Superficial Tumor Photothermal Therapy

Jiang, J., Hu, J., Li, M., Luo, M., Dong, B., Sitti, M., & Yan, X. (2025) · Advanced Materials · doi:10.1002/adma.202417440 · Cited by 93

Biomedical applications of NIR-II organic small molecule fluorescent probes in different organs

Xu, L., Zhang, Q., Wang, X., & Lin, W. (2024) · Coordination Chemistry Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.ccr.2024.216122 · Cited by 86

Advances in organic nano-architectures based on NIR-II small-molecule fluorophores for biomedical imaging and therapy

Bian, H., Ma, D., Nan, Y., Kim, M. H., Kim, S. H., Chen, X., Peng, X., & Yoon, J. (2025) · Coordination Chemistry Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.ccr.2025.216551 · Cited by 82

Integration of Motion and Stillness: A Paradigm Shift in Constructing Nearly Planar NIR-II AIEgen with Ultrahigh Molar Absorptivity and Photothermal Effect for Multimodal Phototheranostics

Yang, S., Jia, Q., Ou, X., Sun, F., Song, C., Zhao, T., Kwok, R. T. K., Sun, J., Zhao, Z., Lam, J. W. Y., et al. (2025) · Journal of the American Chemical Society · doi:10.1021/jacs.4c15216 · Cited by 81

Complexity made easy: Aggregation‐induced emission small molecules for cancer diagnosis and phototherapies

Chen, L., Chen, S., Yuan, Y., Leng, X., Xu, X., Chen, J., Shi, J., Qian, K., Xie, Y., Ding, Q., et al. (2024) · Aggregate · doi:10.1002/agt2.657 · Cited by 68

In vivo, clinical and translational aspects of aggregation-induced emission

Yan, D., Wang, D., & Tang, B. Z. (2025) · Nature Reviews Bioengineering · doi:10.1038/s44222-025-00342-1 · Cited by 68

Aggregation induced emission luminogen bacteria hybrid bionic robot for multimodal phototheranostics and immunotherapy

Zhu, L., Song, G., Zhang, W., Wu, Y., Chen, Y., Song, J., Wang, D., Li, G., Tang, B. Z., & Li, Y. (2025) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-025-57533-y · Cited by 63

Self-stacked small molecules for ultrasensitive, substrate-free Raman imaging in vivo

Gao, S., Zhang, Y., Cui, K., Zhang, S., Qiu, Y., Liao, Y., Wang, H., Yu, S., Ma, L., Chen, H., et al. (2024) · Nature Biotechnology · doi:10.1038/s41587-024-02342-9 · Cited by 59

Boosting Nonradiative Decay of Boron Difluoride Formazanate Dendrimers for NIR‐II Photothermal Theranostics

Dai, H., Pan, J., Shao, J., Xu, K., Ruan, X., Mei, A., Chen, P., Qu, L., & Dong, X. (2025) · Angewandte Chemie International Edition · doi:10.1002/anie.202503718 · Cited by 54

Construction and optimization of organic fluorophores in NIR-II fluorescence imaging

Li, X., Yang, Y., Zhang, R., & Huang, W. (2025) · Chemical Society Reviews · doi:10.1039/d5cs00063g · Cited by 54

Gold Nanoclusters as High Resolution NIR-II Theranostic Agents

Sharma, N., Mohammad, W., Guével, X. L., & Shanavas, A. (2024) · Chemical & Biomedical Imaging · doi:10.1021/cbmi.4c00021 · Cited by 51

Squaraine-based NIR dyes for phototheranostics

Mei, A., He, X., Lei, D., Wang, L., Wang, W., Shao, J., Shen, Q., Jiang, F., & Dong, X. (2024) · Coordination Chemistry Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.ccr.2024.216419 · Cited by 51

Machine Learning Accelerates Discovery of High-Performance Corrole Photosensitizers for Optical Imaging Diagnosis and Photodynamic Therapeutics of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma

Huang, K., Yang, Y., Huang, H., Tang, Y. P., Han, W., Huang, J., An, Y., & Yin, J. (2025) · The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters · doi:10.1021/acs.jpclett.5c03041 · Cited by 49

In Situ Secondary Self‐Assembly of Near‐Infrared II J‐Aggregates: A Novel Phototheranostic Strategy for Inducing Tumor Pyroptosis

Tang, Y., Xiang, D., & Li, Q. (2025) · Advanced Materials · doi:10.1002/adma.202501184 · Cited by 48

Interstitial Optical Fiber‐Mediated Multimodal Phototheranostics Based on an Aggregation‐Induced NIR‐II Emission Luminogen for Orthotopic Breast Cancer Treatment

Zhang, W., Kang, M., Li, X., Yang, H., Zhang, Z., Li, Z., Zhang, Y., Fan, M., Liao, C., Liu, C., et al. (2024) · Advanced Materials · doi:10.1002/adma.202406474 · Cited by 46

NIR-activated multifunctional agents for the combined application in cancer imaging and therapy

Repetowski, P., Warszyńska, M., & Dąbrowski, J. M. (2024) · Advances in Colloid and Interface Science · doi:10.1016/j.cis.2024.103356 · Cited by 46

Bright NIR-II emissive cyanine dye-loaded lipoprotein-mimicking nanoparticles for fluorescence imaging-guided and targeted NIR-II photothermal therapy of subcutaneous glioblastoma

Huang, H., Li, M., Gu, J., Roy, S., Jin, J. G., Kuang, T., Zhang, Y., Hu, G., & Guo, B. (2024) · Journal of Nanobiotechnology · doi:10.1186/s12951-024-03074-3 · Cited by 46

Recent progress in triplet energy transfer systems toward organic afterglow materials

Wu, K., Liu, D., Zhu, L., Wu, T., Xu, Y., He, C., Xiong, Y., Zhao, Z., & Tang, B. Z. (2025) · Communications Chemistry · doi:10.1038/s42004-025-01465-7 · Cited by 45

Molecular afterglow imaging for biomedical applications

Xu, C., Zhang, Y., Liang, G., & Pu, K. (2025) · Nature Materials · doi:10.1038/s41563-025-02338-z · Cited by 45

Advancements in noninvasive techniques for transplant rejection: from biomarker detection to molecular imaging

Song, Y., Wang, Y., Wang, W., Xie, Y., Zhang, J., Liu, J., Jin, Q., Wu, W., Li, H., Wang, J., et al. (2025) · Journal of Translational Medicine · doi:10.1186/s12967-024-05964-4 · Cited by 43

Single- and multi-modal molecular probes with second near-infrared activatable optical signals for disease diagnosis and theranostics

Wang, M., Bai, S., & Zhang, Y. (2025) · Chemical Society Reviews · doi:10.1039/d5cs00502g · Cited by 42

A review of deep learning for super-resolution in fluid flows

Sofos, F. D., & Drikakis, D. (2025) · Physics of Fluids · doi:10.1063/5.0265738 · Cited by 43

NIR‐II AIEgens for Infectious Diseases Phototheranostics

Yan, D., Li, Z., Lee, M. M. S., Tang, B. Z., & Wang, D. (2024) · Angewandte Chemie International Edition · doi:10.1002/anie.202414259 · Cited by 40

Stimuli-responsive organic small-molecule NIR-II fluorescent probes

Zhang, Z., Mei, A., Wang, W., Xu, K., Wang, M., Chen, P., Shao, J., & Dong, X. (2025) · Coordination Chemistry Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.ccr.2025.217026 · Cited by 40

Ultrabright 1650 nm-Emitting Biodegradable Organic Luminophores for NIR-IIbc Fluorescence Imaging

Tang, Y., Li, Y., He, C., Xie, Z., Tian, J., Li, B., Xu, Y., Fan, Q., & Liu, B. (2025) · Journal of the American Chemical Society · doi:10.1021/jacs.5c09462 · Cited by 39

A NIR‐II‐Emissive Organic Nanomedicine with Biomimetic Engineering for High‐Contrast Targeted Bioimaging and Multiple Phototherapies of Pancreatic Tumors

Wang, Y., Zhang, J., Wang, Y., Yu, J., Gao, Y., Yang, Y., Li, X., Wang, H., & Li, S. (2024) · Advanced Functional Materials · doi:10.1002/adfm.202406483 · Cited by 37

Precision Molecular Engineering of Compact Near-Infrared Fluorophores

Huang, R., Qiao, Q., Seah, D., Shen, T., Wu, X., Moliner, F. D., Wang, C., Ding, N., Chi, W., Sun, H., et al. (2025) · Journal of the American Chemical Society · doi:10.1021/jacs.4c16087 · Cited by 37

NIR-II aggregation-induced emission nanoparticles camouflaged with preactivated macrophage membranes for phototheranostics of pulmonary tuberculosis

Yan, D., Li, X., Wang, H., Li, B., Wang, W., Liao, Y., Tang, B. Z., & Wang, D. (2025) · Nature Protocols · doi:10.1038/s41596-025-01146-8 · Cited by 37

NIR‐II Anti‐Stokes Luminescence Nanocrystals with 1710 nm Excitation for in vivo Bioimaging

Chen, Z., Yun, B., Hou, Y., Wang, X., Wang, X., Xu, J. M., Jiang, L., Han, T., Zhang, H., & Zhang, F. (2024) · Angewandte Chemie International Edition · doi:10.1002/anie.202416893 · Cited by 36

Near-infrared organic photoelectrochemical synaptic transistors by wafer-scale photolithography for neuromorphic visual system

Liu, X., Dai, S., Jin, Y., Zhang, J., Guo, Z., Sun, T., Li, L., Guo, P., Gao, H., Liang, H., et al. (2025) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-025-66891-6 · Cited by 37

Broadband Near‐Infrared Fibers Derived from Nanocrystal‐Glass Composites for Miniature Arrays Light Sources

Sun, Y., Sun, M., Lun, Z., Liu, G., Huang, Y., Chen, W., Wang, Y., Huang, H., Chen, Q., Li, J., et al. (2025) · Advanced Materials · doi:10.1002/adma.202416861 · Cited by 34

A Brain-Targeting NIR-II Polymeric Phototheranostic Nanoplatform toward Orthotopic Drug-Resistant Glioblastoma

Su, X., Liu, Y., Zhong, Y., Shangguan, P., Liu, J., Luo, Z., Qi, C., Guo, J., Li, X., Lin, D., et al. (2025) · Nano Letters · doi:10.1021/acs.nanolett.4c05470 · Cited by 35

Rethinking the Terms “π-Stacking” and “π–π Stacking” Again: A Proposal to Clarify the Language of Aromatic Interactions

Xiao, Q., Levine, M. S., & Iverson, B. L. (2026) · Journal of the American Chemical Society · doi:10.1021/jacs.6c03371 · Cited by 34

The strategy to improve the brightness of organic small-molecule fluorescent dyes for imaging

Zhou, J., Ren, T., & Yuan, L. (2024) · Chinese Chemical Letters · doi:10.1016/j.cclet.2024.110644 · Cited by 33

NIR‐II Fluorescence/Photoacoustic Dual Ratiometric Probes with Unique Recognition Site for Quantitatively Visualizing H 2 S 2 in Vivo

Hu, B., Liu, Q., Jiang, Y., Huang, Y., Ji, H., Zhang, J., Wang, X., Shen, X., & Chen, H. (2024) · Angewandte Chemie International Edition · doi:10.1002/anie.202418378 · Cited by 31

Frontiers in fluorescence imaging: tools for the in situ sensing of disease biomarkers

Yang, L., Hou, H., & Li, J. (2024) · Journal of Materials Chemistry B · doi:10.1039/d4tb01867b · Cited by 31

Multi-dimensional donor engineering of NIR-II AIEgens for multimodal phototheranostics of orthotopic breast cancer

Tao, Y., Cui, J., Zhu, J. Z., Mei, J., Wang, D., & Hua, J. (2025) · Biomaterials · doi:10.1016/j.biomaterials.2025.123193 · Cited by 33

Gold clusters: A promising NIR-II probe for bioimaging and biosensing

Sun, J., Cheng, W., Liu, X., Xiang, H., Ruan, C., Chen, F., & Yao, C. (2025) · Coordination Chemistry Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.ccr.2025.216544 · Cited by 31

Excitation-Matchable Shortwave Infrared Quinolinium Fluorophores: Decoding Spatiotemporal Interactions with Multiplexed Bioimaging

Yao, Y., Chen, J., Yan, C., Gao, M., Liu, J., Zhu, W., Fan, C., & Guo, Z. (2025) · Journal of the American Chemical Society · doi:10.1021/jacs.5c10749 · Cited by 31

Xanthene-based NIR organic phototheranostics agents: design strategies and biomedical applications

Ran, X., Wei, Y., Wu, Y., Dai, L.-R., Xia, W.-L., Zhou, P., & Li, K. (2025) · Journal of Materials Chemistry B · doi:10.1039/d4tb02480j · Cited by 30

Enhancing the fluorescence emission of the NIR-II fluorophores: Strategies, mechanisms, challenges, and opportunities

Liu, N., He, S., Cheng, Z., & Hu, J. (2025) · Coordination Chemistry Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.ccr.2025.216511 · Cited by 30

Shortwave Infrared Hemicyanine-6 for Cancer-Activated and Shaving-Free Preclinical Imaging of Lung Metastasis

Yang, H., Li, D., Wu, J., & Pu, K. (2025) · Journal of the American Chemical Society · doi:10.1021/jacs.5c06682 · Cited by 30

Co-encapsulation of probiotics with functional components: design strategies, synergistic mechanisms, biomedical applications, and challenges for industrialization

Ji, C., Li, D., Liang, Y., & Luo, Y. (2025) · Journal of Materials Chemistry B · doi:10.1039/d5tb01747e · Cited by 32

Constructing Stable and Wavelength‐Extended Heptamethine Cyanines via Donor Ectopic Substitution for NIR‐IIa/b Bioimaging

Ou, Y., Xiang, H., Yang, X., Wang, R., Huan, S., Yuan, L., Ren, T., & Zhang, X. (2025) · Angewandte Chemie International Edition · doi:10.1002/anie.202423978 · Cited by 29

A stable and biocompatible shortwave infrared nanoribbon for dual-channel in vivo imaging

Yao, C., Wei, R., Luo, X. L., Zhou, J., Zhang, X., Lu, X., Dong, Y., Chu, R., Sun, Y., Wang, Y., et al. (2025) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-024-55445-x · Cited by 29

Molecular Engineering of a SICTERS Small Molecule with Superior In Vivo Raman Imaging and Photothermal Performance

Zhang, Y., Zhang, W., Qiu, Y., Cui, K., Li, X., Wei, H., Luo, A., & Xiao, Z. (2025) · Journal of the American Chemical Society · doi:10.1021/jacs.4c16411 · Cited by 29

Short-Wave Infrared Upconverting Nanoparticles

Qi, X., Lee, C., Ursprung, B., Skripka, A., Schuck, P. J., Chan, E. M., & Cohen, B. E. (2024) · Journal of the American Chemical Society · doi:10.1021/jacs.4c11181 · Cited by 27

Near-infrared BODIPY-based theranostic agents for photothermal and combinatory therapy of cancers, where do we stand in year 2025

Iqbal, M. S., Ahmad, H., Chen, Y., Huang, H., & Guo, B. (2025) · Coordination Chemistry Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.ccr.2025.216781 · Cited by 29

Organic NIR‐II Nanofluorophore with Ultrahigh Quantum Yield for Vessels Imaging and Fluorescence Image‐Guided Surgery

Zhang, X., Li, L., Ren, Y., Li, M., & Tang, Y. (2025) · Advanced Functional Materials · doi:10.1002/adfm.202413341 · Cited by 26

Plasmon-enhanced NIR-II photoluminescence of rare-earth oxide nanoprobes for high-sensitivity optical temperature sensing

Zhuang, B., Yang, Y., Huang, K., & Yin, J. (2024) · Optics Letters · doi:10.1364/ol.540944 · Cited by 26

Alleviating NIR-II emission quenching in ring-fused fluorophore via manipulating dimer populations for superior fluorescence imaging

Miao, X., Jia, M., Weng, X., Zhang, J., Pan, Y., Zhao, H., Yu, Z., Fan, Q., & Hu, W. (2025) · Light: Science & Applications · doi:10.1038/s41377-025-01787-0 · Cited by 25

High Spatiotemporal Near‐Infrared II Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging for Quantitative Detection of Clinical Tumor Margins

Chen, Z., Huang, L., Gao, D., Bao, Z., Hu, D., Zheng, W., Chen, J., Liao, J., Zheng, H., & Sheng, Z. (2024) · Advanced Science · doi:10.1002/advs.202411272 · Cited by 26

Antenna Effect for Enhanced Near‐Infrared Luminescence in Lanthanide‐Doped Nanoparticles: Mechanisms, Strategies, and Applications

Ming, J., Zhou, J., Liu, X., & Zhang, F. (2025) · Advanced Materials · doi:10.1002/adma.202508521 · Cited by 25

“Crossbreeding” NIR‐II flavchromene for PSMA‐positive prostate cancer detection and image‐guided surgery

Huang, J., Yao, Y., Zhang, L., Yan, C., & Guo, Z. (2024) · Smart Molecules · doi:10.1002/smo.20240020 · Cited by 25

Raising Near-Infrared Photoluminescence Quantum Yield of Au 42 Quantum Rod to 50% in Solutions and 75% in Films

Luo, L., Liu, Z., Mazumder, A., & Jin, R. M. (2024) · Journal of the American Chemical Society · doi:10.1021/jacs.4c11703 · Cited by 24

Chemiluminescent transition metal complexes: Mechanisms and applications

Zhu, J., Gu, M., Chen, Y., Li, M., Chen, X., Yoon, J., & Peng, X. (2025) · Coordination Chemistry Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.ccr.2025.216495 · Cited by 24

Achieving High‐Brightness NIR‐II Emission: Molecular Locking and Wrapping Strategies in Fluorescent Material Design for in Vivo Bioimaging

Wan, Y., Gao, Y., Chen, Y., Lee, K., Wang, H., Tsai, Y., Chen, W., Li, S., Wong, K., & Lee, C. (2025) · Advanced Materials · doi:10.1002/adma.202510386 · Cited by 24

Neutrophil elastase-activated carbon dots for non-invasive early diagnosis of inflammatory bowel disease by near-infrared-II fluorescence imaging

Gong, D., Xiao, Z., Hu, Y., Wu, S., Yi, Z., Sheng, T., Zha, Z., Ma, Y., & Miao, Z. (2024) · Chemical Engineering Journal · doi:10.1016/j.cej.2024.156099 · Cited by 23

Bright Chromium‐Sensitized Lanthanide NIR‐II Mechanoluminescence in a Piezoelectric Oxide

Liu, S., Guo, Y., Song, Z., Peng, D., Liu, Q., & Wang, F. (2025) · Advanced Materials · doi:10.1002/adma.202506957 · Cited by 23

Organic small-molecule NIR-II fluorophores for tumor phototheranostics

Xiang, D., Wang, Z., Zheng, H., Tang, Y., & Li, Q. (2026) · Light: Science & Applications · doi:10.1038/s41377-026-02212-w · Cited by 22

Advanced Applications of Nanomaterials in Atherosclerosis Diagnosis and Treatment: Challenges and Future Prospects

Tong, J., Wang, Z., Zhang, J., Gao, R., Liu, X., Liao, Y., Guo, X., & Wei, Y. (2024) · ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces · doi:10.1021/acsami.4c13607 · Cited by 22

Nanotheranostics with Radionuclides for Cancer Diagnosis and Therapy

Cui, M., Zhu, M., Tang, D., Cao, Z., Xiao, H., & Shang, K. (2025) · Advanced Functional Materials · doi:10.1002/adfm.202423445 · Cited by 22

Optical imaging in biomedical research: guidelines and practical insights

Chu, T., Zheng, X., Manshian, B. B., & Soenen, S. J. (2025) · Health Nanotechnology · doi:10.1186/s44301-025-00004-6 · Cited by 23

Atomically Precise Metal Nanoclusters for Near-Infrared-II Photonics

Liu, Z., Sardar, A., Chen, S., Wang, Y., & Jin, R. M. (2026) · Accounts of Chemical Research · doi:10.1021/acs.accounts.5c00782 · Cited by 22

Novel activated NIR-II fluorescence/Ratio photoacoustic probe for dual-modality accurate imaging of palladium ions overload in mouse liver

Zhu, H., Li, W., Ai, S., Wan, Y., & Lin, W. (2024) · Journal of Hazardous Materials · doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2024.134275 · Cited by 22

PET‐Based Dual‐Modal Probes for In Vivo Imaging

Zhao, R., Lan, D., Xia, B., Dong, M., Mu, J., & Zhao, Y. (2025) · Small · doi:10.1002/smll.202409713 · Cited by 23

Sulfur‐π Interaction: A New Strategy for Designing NIR‐II AIE Photosensitizer for Wound Healing

Wen, H., Deng, Z., Dong, R., Zhang, Z., Chen, X., Alfani, G. A., Wang, W., Qiu, Z., Alam, P., Zhao, Z., et al. (2025) · Advanced Functional Materials · doi:10.1002/adfm.202508015 · Cited by 21

NIR-activated nanodisguisers for targeted bactericidal action and enhanced electron transfer in periodontitis treatment

Qi, M., Ding, Q., Shi, Y., Wang, K., Liu, J., Zhou, J., Zhang, W., Liu, C., Liang, S., Dong, B., et al. (2025) · Biomaterials · doi:10.1016/j.biomaterials.2025.123487 · Cited by 21

Recent advances in optical sensors for trace Iron-ion concentration

Dong, S., Karimi‐Maleh, H., Liu, Y., Xie, Q., He, Y., Fan, W., Zare, N., & Zhong, N. (2025) · Coordination Chemistry Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.ccr.2025.217024 · Cited by 21

Alkyl Chain Engineering for High-Brightness Near-Infrared-II Aggregation-Induced Emission Nanoprobes toward High-Resolution In Vivo Bioimaging

Ren, K., Li, X., Zhu, J., Yang, H., Yang, Z., Zhang, F., You, C., Xiang, S., Tong, Y., Chen, J., et al. (2025) · ACS Nano · doi:10.1021/acsnano.5c16882 · Cited by 21

BODIPY-Doped Nanocarrier Engineering (BONE) Improves Bone Marrow mRNA Delivery by NIR-II Bioimaging Guided Screening

Li, B., Wang, J., Ye, P., Liu, C., Ming, Y., Yang, B., He, D., Lai, W., Guo, L., Zhao, M., et al. (2026) · Journal of the American Chemical Society · doi:10.1021/jacs.5c14271 · Cited by 22

Homo‐Dyad with Outer Hydration Layer Approach for Developing NIR‐II Chromophore of High Stability and Water‐Solubility as Injectable and Sprayable Optical Probe

She, Z., Li, R., Zeng, F., & Wu, S. (2024) · Advanced Healthcare Materials · doi:10.1002/adhm.202400791 · Cited by 22

Lysosome-Targeted and pH-Activatable Phototheranostics for NIR-II Fluorescence Imaging-Guided Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Phototherapy

Li, Z., Yang, S., Xiao, H., Kang, Q., Li, N., Wu, G., Tan, S., Wang, W., Fu, Q., Tang, X., et al. (2024) · Bioconjugate Chemistry · doi:10.1021/acs.bioconjchem.4c00225 · Cited by 21

Nanomaterials and methods for cancer therapy: 2D materials, biomolecules, and molecular dynamics simulations

Kedir, W. M., Li, L., Tan, Y. S., Bajalović, N., & Loke, D. K. (2024) · Journal of Materials Chemistry B · doi:10.1039/d4tb01667j · Cited by 20

Energy Gap Law-Harnessing Design of Highly Second Near-Infrared Emissive 34π-Annulated Porphyrinoids for In Vivo Imaging

Tsai, Y.-C., Chen, Y.-C., Lu, H., Chan, K.-M., Lin, S.-L., Lin, P.-X., Rotomskis, R., Steponkienė, S., Wu, T., Chan, M., et al. (2025) · Journal of the American Chemical Society · doi:10.1021/jacs.5c05151 · Cited by 20

Shaping NIR-II Emission: The Role of Surface Chemistry and Environment in Gold Nanoclusters

Guével, X. L. (2025) · Accounts of Chemical Research · doi:10.1021/acs.accounts.5c00626 · Cited by 20

Flexible Organic Charge-Transfer Cocrystals with Near-Infrared Emission

Wu, W., Zhu, J., Lu, Y., Ye, Y., Yu, L., Li, L., Huang, X., Wang, N., Wang, T., Naumov, P., et al. (2025) · JACS Au · doi:10.1021/jacsau.5c00789 · Cited by 19

NIR‐II Fluorescence and Magnetic Resonance Imaging‐Guided Efficient Piezodynamic Therapy of Subcutaneous Glioblastoma with a Biomimetic Nanoplatform Containing Defect‐Engineered Piezoelectric Shell and Downconversion Nanocore

Ullah, Z., Roy, S., Hasan, I., Madni, M., Gong, T., Roy, J., Sau, A., Yan, Y., Soe, S. K., Zhang, Y., et al. (2025) · Small · doi:10.1002/smll.202510697 · Cited by 19

Super-Absorbing Quantum-Confined Cyanine Dyes for Near-Infrared Confocal Imaging of Hierarchical Nephron Structures

Zhang, Y., Wang, B., Qin, Y., Lu, X., Zhang, X., Yao, C., Qi, Y., Yang, M., Ge, G., Qian, X. H., et al. (2025) · Journal of the American Chemical Society · doi:10.1021/jacs.5c13660 · Cited by 19

Rational Design of NIR‐II Emitting Conjugated Polymer Derived Nanoparticles for Image‐Guided Cancer Interventions

Gill, N. K., Srivastava, I., & Tropp, J. (2024) · Advanced Healthcare Materials · doi:10.1002/adhm.202401297 · Cited by 19

Bioengineered nanomaterials for dynamic diagnostics in vivo

Wu, J., Zhou, X., Tsang, C. Y., Mei, Q., & Zhang, Y. (2025) · Chemical Society Reviews · doi:10.1039/d5cs00136f · Cited by 18

Synthesis of transition metal-sensitized lanthanide near-infrared luminescent nanoparticles

Ming, J., Xie, Z., Wu, J., & Zhang, F. (2025) · Nature Protocols · doi:10.1038/s41596-025-01245-6 · Cited by 18

Tannic acid: A link between metallic elements and biomedical applications

Huang, K., Liu, H., Zhang, H., Zhang, X., Jiang, H., Liu, X., & Wang, X. (2025) · Coordination Chemistry Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.ccr.2025.217193 · Cited by 18

Dihydropyridopyrazine Functionalized Xanthene: Generating Stable NIR Dyes with Small‐Molecular Weight by Enhanced Charge Separation

Zhang, X., Yang, F., Zhao, X., Wu, Q., He, L., Li, Z., Zhou, Z., Ren, T., Zhang, X., & Yuan, L. (2024) · Angewandte Chemie International Edition · doi:10.1002/anie.202410666 · Cited by 18

Molecular Etching‐Derived High‐Brightness NIR‐II Gold Nanoclusters for High‐Resolution Bioimaging and Photothermal Therapy

Tian, F., Li, S., Yang, X. F., Fan, K., Zhou, M., Gao, D., Hu, D., & Ju, S. (2025) · Advanced Functional Materials · doi:10.1002/adfm.202418867 · Cited by 18

Effective One‐for‐All Phototheranostic Agent for Hypoxia‐Tolerant NIR‐II Fluorescent/PA Image‐Guided Phototherapy

Xi, S., Xiao, H., Duan, Z., Li, L., Chen, J., Hu, T., Li, X., Hu, L., & Liu, R. (2025) · Small · doi:10.1002/smll.202406226 · Cited by 17

Near-infrared theranostics for brain diseases: Design, engineering, and emerging applications

Wang, J., Liu, Y., Qi, C., Luo, Z., Wei, J., Wang, G., Ismail, M., Zhong, Y., & Shi, B. (2025) · Coordination Chemistry Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.ccr.2025.216591 · Cited by 18

Enhanced Near-Infrared-Excitable Organic Afterglow Nanoparticles for Deep-Tissue Multimodal Imaging via Singlet Oxygen-Mediated Energy Transfer

Yu, Y., Li, Z., Liao, S., Yin, B., Zhang, Q., Fu, J., Zhang, C., Zhou, Y., & Song, G. (2025) · Research · doi:10.34133/research.0834 · Cited by 17

Rational design of fluorescent imaging agents for hepatic diseases: from molecular mechanisms to diagnostic precision

Mao, Y., Zhang, W., Wang, X., Li, P., & Tang, B. (2026) · Chemical Society Reviews · doi:10.1039/d5cs00947b · Cited by 18

A near-infrared fluorescent probe for sensing cuprous ions

Yi, M., Zhao, J., Shen, R., Ma, T., Tu, J., Li, X., Zhang, B., & Fang, J. (2024) · Sensors and Actuators B Chemical · doi:10.1016/j.snb.2024.136982 · Cited by 17

Recent advances in NIR-II fluorescence imaging for biomedical applications

Xu, B., Xu, K., Li, S., Sheng, H., Li, H., Zhang, X., Wang, Y., Feng, S., & Chen, J. (2026) · Advanced Interventional Materials · doi:10.1016/j.advim.2026.100016 · Cited by 3

Advances in the near-infrared Ⅱ for in vivo fluorescence imaging applications: A review

Zou, M., Wang, Y., Jiao, J., Lv, M., & Mo, T. (2025) · Talanta · doi:10.1016/j.talanta.2025.128630 · Cited by 15

Recent Advances in Second Near-Infrared Region (NIR-II) Fluorophores and Biomedical Applications

Chen, Y., Xue, L., Zhu, Q., Feng, Y., & Wu, M. (2021) · Frontiers in Chemistry · doi:10.3389/fchem.2021.750404 · Cited by 97

NIR-II Fluorophores: From Synthesis to Biological Applications

Duo, Y., Zhao, L., Wang, Z.-G., & Liu, S. (2023) · Journal of Analysis and Testing · doi:10.1007/s41664-023-00254-2 · Cited by 46

Advanced Fluorescence Imaging Technology in the Near-Infrared-II Window for Biomedical Applications

Li, C., Chen, G., Zhang, Y., Wu, F., & Wang, Q. (2020) · Journal of the American Chemical Society · doi:10.1021/jacs.0c07022 · Cited by 1,037