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Live-cell bioorthogonal Raman imaging
Senlian Hong1, Liang Lin1, Min Xiao1
1Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Key Laboratory of Bioorganic Chemistry and Molecular Engineering of Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Synthetic and Functional Biomolecules Center, and Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
Abstract:
Live-cell microscopy demands high specificity, sensitivity, and minimal perturbation to the biomolecules of interest. Meeting all these criteria has been challenging in cellular imaging. Toward this goal, a bioorthogonal Raman imaging method has recently emerged by exploiting small Raman reporters that possess Raman signals that do not overlap with the naturally existing biomolecules in the cells. The Raman reporters are metabolically incorporated into the target biomolecules for direct visualization. Herein, we review recent advances in the methodological development and the proof-of-concept applications of the live-cell bioorthogonal Raman imaging technique.
