Abstract: The spatio-temporal analysis of organelles and their microenvironments is pivotal to understanding cellular life processes. Conventional fluorescent dyes suffer from limitations such as quenching at high concentrations and poor photostability, rendering them unsuitable for long-term, high signal-to-noise ratio live-cell imaging. Aggregation-induced emission (AIE) materials have emerged to address these challenges, demonstrating unique advantages. This paper systematically summarises design strategies for AIE molecular probes and their imaging applications in organelles including mitochondria, lysosomes, lipid droplets, cell membranes, nuclei, endoplasmic reticulum, and Golgi apparatus. It identifies challenges in super-resolution imaging, molecular design of near-infrared AIE probes, cross-species imaging, logic response, and toxicity assessment, while outlining future directions for organelle imaging with AIE molecular probes.

Key words: Aggregation-induced emission, Molecular probe, Organelle imaging