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Visualizing Intracellular SNARE Trafficking by Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Microscopy
Published on: December 29, 2017
High resolution mapping of subcellular refractive index by Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging: a next frontier in
1Institute for Lasers, Photonics and Biophotonics and the Department of Chemistry, University at Buffalo, the State University of New York, Buffalo, NY 14260, United States of America.
Abstract:
Intracellular refractive index (RI) is an essential biophysical parameter, which best represents the mass and the distribution of proteins in the cell interior, including high-density accumulations in membraneless organelles. For RI measurements, a number of sophisticated techniques have been developed; however most of the new approaches are either insufficiently sensitive to intracellular variations of proteins distribution or are not compatible with live cell studies. Here, we outline the fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) strategy for high resolution mapping of subcellular RI. We provide an example of our recent studies in which we utilize FLIM for measurements and monitoring of local RI in the major membraneless organelles within live cultured cells.
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