Luminescent conjugated polymers:: Illuminating the dark matters of biology and pathology

Novel technologies for studying biological events are of great interest and luminescent conjugated polymers (LCPs), a material normally used in organic electronics, have proven useful for the detection of a wide range of disease-related biological processes. The conformation-sensitive optical properties of LCPs provide the ability to study the biochemical activity of biological events on the basis of a structure-function relation, rather than a molecular basis. In this Research News article, the LCP technique and its usefulness for studying protein aggregation diseases are highlighted. We also discuss the much-needed illuminating insights of the underlying pathological events regarding protein aggregation diseases. In addition, essential future basic research advances that relate to further development of LCPs as molecular probes are presented. We also confer the intriguing prospect of employing amyloid fibrils, that is, a symmetric stable nano-material normally associated with the dark side of horrific pathology, as a scaffold for functional polymer-protein hybrid materials.