ABSTRACT
Fluorescent probes for biomolecular recognition are of great importance in the elds of chemistry, biology, and medical sciences, as well as biotechnology. ese probes have been used for mechanism studies of biological functions and in ultrasensitive detection of biological species responsible for many diseases [1]. In the postgenome era, quantitative studies of genomic information for disease diagnosis and prevention and drug discovery will be fast-growing areas of research and development. is has led to a continued demand for advanced biomolecular recognition probes with high sensitivity and high specicity. Molecular beacon (MB), a recently developed single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) molecule [2], appears to be a very promising probe for quantitative genomic studies. MBs are hairpin-shaped oligonucleotides that contain both uorophore and quencher moieties. ey act like switches that are normally closed to bring the uorophore/quencher pair together to turn uorescence off. When prompted
20.6 Outlook ...............................................................................................529 Acknowledgments ........................................................................................530 References ......................................................................................................530
