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Updated: Oct 15, 2025

Non-contact, Label-free Monitoring of Cells and Extracellular Matrix using Raman Spectroscopy
Published on: May 29, 2012
A decade of alkyne-tag Raman imaging (ATRI): applications in biological systems
Subha Bakthavatsalam1, Kosuke Dodo1,2, Mikiko Sodeoka1,2
1Synthetic Organic Chemistry Laboratory, RIKEN Cluster for Pioneering Research Wako Saitama 351-0198 Japan dodo@riken.jp sodeoka@riken.jp.
Abstract:
Alkyne functional groups have Raman signatures in a region (1800 cm-1 to 2800 cm-1) that is free from interference from cell components, known as the "silent region", and alkyne signals in this region were first utilized a decade ago to visualize the nuclear localization of a thymidine analogue EdU. Since then, the strategy of Raman imaging of biological samples by using alkyne functional groups, called alkyne-tag Raman imaging (ATRI), has become widely used. This article reviews the applications of ATRI in biological samples ranging from organelles to whole animal models, and briefly discusses the prospects for this technique.
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