Near-infrared (NIR, 700-1700 nm) bioimaging has gained considerable attention in recent years owing to its high imaging resolution and increasing penetration depth of tissues. NIR emissive lanthanide( iii ) complexes have emerged as alluring candidates for the design of NIR molecular probes in clinical imaging and diagnosis because of their desirable temporal-spatial resolution, negligible photobleaching effect, long lifetime and low biotoxicity. In this mini-review, we summarize our efforts in the molecular design of NIR luminescent lanthanide porphyrinoids and their biological applications in bioimaging and further clinical diagnosis and treatment. Remarkably, β-fluorinated porphyrin Yb 3+ probes exhibit high luminescence (5-13% quantum yields in H 2 O), long decay lifetimes (>100 μs) and enable in vivo fluorescence intensity imaging and time-resolved fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM). Finally, the main concerns and challenges for NIR emissive Ln biolabels such as the diversity of the NIR Ln 3+ optical toolbox and their biocompatibility and targeting capability in biological media are discussed so as to facilitate the long-term development of lanthanide chemical biology. The recent developments and prospects of near-infrared molecular probes based on luminescent lanthanide coordination complexes in bioimaging are described, which is important to emphasise the importance of lanthanide chemical biology.