History

KU dyes is founded by Thomas Just Sørensen & Bo W. Laursen, who has been working with fluorescent dyes, applications of fluorescence, and fluorescence technology for decades.

The core technology is based on the triangulenium dyes developed by Laursen in the late 1990’ies. In the group of triangulenium dyes you can find super-brigth fluorescent probes that replace traditional fluoresceines and rhodamines, and you can find unique long fluorescent lifetime probes. The triangulenium dyes also encompass dyes that do not show bleaching over weeks in direct sunlight.

A selection of papers on the dyes and technologies developed by Sørensen & Laursen can be found below.

Laursen BW, Krebs FC, Nielsen MF, Bechgaard K, Christensen JB, Harrit N. 2,6,10-Tris(dialkylamino)trioxatriangulenium ions. Synthesis, structure, and properties of exceptionally stable carbenium ions. J Am Chem Soc. 1998;120(47):12255-63.

Laursen BW, Krebs FC. Synthesis of a triazatriangulenium salt. Angew Chem Int Ed. 2000;39(19):3432-4.

Laursen BW. Triangulenium Salts [Ph. D. Thesis]: Risø National Laboratory; 2001.

Laursen BW, Krebs FC. Synthesis, structure, and properties of azatriangulenium salts. Chem Eur J. 2001;7(8):1773-83.

Laursen BW, Reynisson J, Mikkelsen KV, Bechgaard K, Harrit N. 2,6,10-tris(dialkylamino)trioxatriangulenium salts: a new promising fluorophore. Ion-pair formation and aggregation in non-polar solvents. Photochem Photobio Sci. 2005;4(8):568-76.

Laursen BW, Sørensen TJ. Synthesis of Super Stable Triangulenium Dye. J Org Chem. 2009;74(8):3183-5.

Sørensen TJ, Laursen BW, Luchowski R, Shtoyko T, Akopova I, Gryczynski Z, et al. Enhanced fluorescence emission of Me-ADOTA(+) by self-assembled silver nanoparticles on a gold film. Chem Phys Lett. 2009;476(1-3):46-50.

Sørensen TJ, Laursen BW. Synthesis and Optical Properties of Trioxatriangulenium Dyes with One and Two Peripheral Amino Substituents. The Journal of Organic Chemistry. 2010;75(18):6182-90.

Westerlund F, Hildebrandt CB, Sørensen TJ, Laursen BW. Trihydroxytrioxatriangulene – An Extended Fluorescein and a Ratiometric pH Sensor. Chemistry – A European Journal. 2010;16(10):2992-6.

Simonsen JB, Westerlund F, Breiby DW, Harrit N, Laursen BW. Columnar Self-Assembly and Alignment of Planar Carbenium Ions in Langmuir−Blodgett Films. Langmuir. 2011;27(2):792-9.

Westerlund F, Elm J, Lykkebo J, Carlsson N, Thyrhaug E, Akerman B, et al. Direct probing of ion pair formation using a symmetric triangulenium dye. Photochem Photobio Sci. 2011;10(12):1963-73.

Hammershøj P, Sørensen TJ, Han B-H, Laursen BW. Base-Assisted One-Pot Synthesis of N,N′,N″-Triaryltriazatriangulenium Dyes: Enhanced Fluorescence Efficiency by Steric Constraints. The Journal of Organic Chemistry. 2012;77(13):5606-12.

Shi D, Sfintes G, Laursen BW, Simonsen JB. Fluorescent and Highly Stable Unimodal DMPC Based Unilamellar Vesicles Formed by Spontaneous Curvature. Langmuir. 2012;28(23):8608-15.

Sørensen TJ, Hildebrandt CB, Elm J, Andreasen JW, Madsen AO, Westerlund F, et al. Large area, soft crystalline thin films of N,N’,N”-trialkyltriazatriangulenium salts with homeotropic alignment of the discotic cores in a lamellar lattice. J Mater Chem. 2012;22(11):4797-805.

Maliwal BP, Fudala R, Raut S, Kokate R, Sørensen TJ, Laursen BW, et al. Long-Lived Bright Red Emitting Azaoxa-Triangulenium Fluorophores. PLoS ONE. 2013;8(5):e63043.

Rich RM, Mummert M, Gryczynski Z, Borejdo J, Sørensen TJ, Laursen BW, et al. Elimination of autofluorescence in fluorescence correlation spectroscopy using the AzaDiOxaTriAngulenium (ADOTA) fluorophore in combination with time-correlated single-photon counting (TCSPC). Anal Bioanal Chem. 2013;405(14):4887-94.

Rich RM, Stankowska DL, Maliwal BP, Sørensen TJ, Laursen BW, Krishnamoorthy RR, et al. Elimination of autofluorescence background from fluorescence tissue images by use of time-gated detection and the AzaDiOxaTriAngulenium (ADOTA) fluorophore. Anal Bioanal Chem. 2013;405(6):2065-75.

Sørensen TJ, Hildebrandt CB, Glyvradal M, Laursen BW. Synthesis, optical properties and lamellar self-organization of new N,N′,N″-trialkyl-triazatriangulenium tetrafluoroborate salts. Dyes Pigment. 2013;98(2):297-303.

Thyrhaug E, Sørensen TJ, Gryczynski I, Gryczynski Z, Laursen BW. Polarization and symmetry of electronic transitions in long fluorescence lifetime triangulenium dyes. The journal of physical chemistry A. 2013;117(10):2160-8.

Cummins B, Simpson J, Gryczynski Z, Sørensen TJ, Laursen BW, Graham D, et al. ConA-based glucose sensing using the long-lifetime azadioxatriangulenium fluorophore. Proc SPIE 8951, Optical Diagnostics and Sensing XIVs. 2014;8951:7.

Bora I, Bogh SA, Santella M, Rosenberg M, Sørensen TJ, Laursen BW. Azadioxatriangulenium: Synthesis and Photophysical Properties of Reactive Dyes for Bioconjugation. Eur J Org Chem. 2015:6351–8.

Sidsel AB, Ilkay B, Martin R, Erling T, Bo WL, Thomas Just S. Azadioxatriangulenium: exploring the effect of a 20 ns fluorescence lifetime in fluorescence anisotropy measurements. Methods and Applications in Fluorescence. 2015;3(4):045001.