The helicity of the (SSS)-Delta enantiomer of a terbium and europium(III) complex is inverted on reversible binding to 'drug site II' of serum albumin, signalled by a switch in its circularly polarised emission; no such behaviour occurs with the (RRR)-Lambda complexes, thereby defining a unique chiroptical probe of albumin binding.

A terbium probe for the selective time-gated detection of hydroxyl radical is presented. This probe demonstrates high sensitivity with an 11.0-fold increase in time-gated luminescence intensity for an hour-long exposure to hydroxyl radical concentration in the femtomolar range, and high selectivity for HO* over other reactive oxygen species.

Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) with fluorescent proteins permits high spatial resolution imaging of protein-protein interactions in living cells. However, substantial non-FRET fluorescence background can obscure small FRET signals, making many potential interactions unobservable by conventional FRET techniques. Here we demonstrate time-resolved microscopy of luminescence resonance ene...

Retroviral reverse transcriptases use host cellular tRNAs as primers to initiate reverse transcription. In the case of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), the 3' 18 nucleotides of human tRNA(Lys,3) are annealed to a complementary sequence on the RNA genome known as the primer binding site (PBS). The HIV-1 nucleocapsid protein (NC) facilitates this annealing. To understand the structura...

Single crystals of KTb(C(2)O(4))(SO(4))(H(2)O), potassium aqua-terbium(III) oxalate sulfate, were obtained under hydro-thermal conditions. In the crystal structure, the Tb(III) atom is coordinated by four O atoms from two oxalate anions, three O atoms from three sulfate anions and one O atom from a water mol-ecule within a TbO(8) distorted square antiprismatic coordination. The potassium and te...

Delayed gate fluorescence detection of dipicolinic acid (DPA), a universal and specific component of bacterial spores, has been appraised for use in a rapid analytical method for the detection of low concentrations of bacterial spores. DPA was assayed by fluorimetric detection of its chelates with lanthanide metals. The influence of the choice and concentration of lanthanide and buffer ions on ...

A strategy of interfacial energy transfer upconversion is demonstrated through the use of a terbium (Tb(3+) ) dopant as energy donor or energy migrator in core-shell-structured nanocrystals. This mechanistic investigation presents a new pathway for photon upconversion, and, more importantly, contributes to the better control of energy transfer at the nanometer length scale.