Complexes in context: attempting to control the cellular uptake and localisation of rhenium fac-tricarbonyl polypyridyl complexes.

Transition metal lumophores are now well established as agents for cell imaging, but we are still not able to predict generally and with confidence their cellular localisation, or, for that matter, their uptake efficiencies. While many such complexes have been shown to illuminate cells, genuine applications in biomedical research will only be developed when their uptake and localisation are better understood. This perspective is not a comprehensive review of luminescence, but is an overview of attempts to control uptake and localisation, focussing on a personal account of this group's development of imaging agents based on the Re(CO)(3) bipyridine core, and our attempts to understand and control their cellular behaviour.