Advances in polarised luminescence approaches to understanding interactions between biomolecules

Luminescence spectroscopies are attractive due to their sensitivity and selectivity. Polarised light provides added dimensions to luminescence data, leading to techniques that provide information about molecular structure and interactions. In this review the principles of steady-state fluorescence techniques, including fluorescence-detected circular dichroism, fluorescence-detected linear dichroism, fluorescence polarisation anisotropy, circularly polarised luminescence, and linearly polarised luminescence, are outlined and illustrated with examples of how they have been used to study biomolecules and their interactions with other molecules.