Molecular imaging enables minimally-invasive visualisation of molecular and cellular biological processes in living organisms.
Recognition and discrimination of small molecules are crucial for biological processes in living systems.
Secondary metabolites are associated with numerous biological processes in living body, for example; defense system, biotic and abiotic stress.
In 2000, the Society of Molecular Imaging http://www.molecularimaging.org/ defined molecular imaging as: 'the characterization and measurement of biological processes in living animals at the cellular and molecular level'.
Advances in the development of new fluorescent reporters and imaging techniques have revolutionized our ability to directly visualize biological processes in living systems.
Circadian rhythms are 24-hr oscillations that control a variety of biological processes in living systems, including two hallmarks of cancer, cell division and metabolism.
In 2006, the Federation of Asian Societies for Molecular Imaging (FASMI: http://fasmi.org/) defined molecular imaging as: ' the characterization and measurement of biological processes in living animals at the cellular and molecular level by means of non-invasive (or minimally invasive) imaging'.
The molecular imaging (MI) of tumors has recently gained widespread use [1 4] due to its ability to facilitate quantitative and repetitive imaging of targeted molecules and biological processes in living organisms [2, 5, 6].
In the recent decade, FRET became an exceptional fluorescence-based technique due to its potential advantages for studying the biological processes in living cells and more for spatial resolution at nanometer scale.
In vivo bioluminescence imaging offers the opportunity to study biological processes in living animals, and the study of viral infections and host immune responses can be enhanced substantially through this imaging modality.
