Mary E. Phipps

Time-resolved three-dimensional molecular tracking in live cells.

We report a method for tracking individual quantum dot (QD) labeled proteins inside of live cells that uses four overlapping confocal volume elements and active feedback once every 5 ms to follow three-dimensional molecular motion. This method has substantial advantages over three-dimensional molecular tracking methods based upon charge-coupled device cameras, including increased Z-tracking range (10 μm demonstrated here), substantially lower excitation powers (15 μW used here), and the ability to perform time-resolved spectroscopy (such as fluorescence lifetime measurements or fluorescence correlation spectroscopy) on the molecules being tracked. In particular, we show for the first time fluorescence photon antibunching of individual QD labeled proteins in live cells and demonstrate the ability to track individual dye-labeled nucleotides (Cy5-dUTP) at biologically relevant transport rates. To demonstrate the power of these methods for exploring the spatiotemporal dynamics of live cells, we follow individual QD-labeled IgE-FcεRI receptors both on and inside rat mast cells. Trajectories of receptors on the plasma membrane reveal three-dimensional, nanoscale features of the cell surface topology. During later stages of the signal transduction cascade, clusters of QD labeled IgE-FcεRI were captured in the act of ligand-mediated endocytosis and tracked during rapid (~950 nm/s) vesicular transit through the cell.

Confocal line scanning of a Bessel beam for fast 3D Imaging

We have developed a light-sheet illumination microscope that can perform fast 3D imaging of transparent biological samples with inexpensive visible lasers and a single galvo mirror (GM). The light-sheet is created by raster scanning a Bessel beam with a GM, with this same GM also being used to rescan the fluorescence across a chip of a camera to construct an image in real time. A slit is used to reject out-of-focus fluorescence such that the image formed in real time has minimal contribution from the sidelobes of the Bessel beam. Compared with two-photon Bessel beam excitation or other confocal line-scanning approaches, our method is of lower cost, is simpler, and does not require calibration and synchronization of multiple GMs. We demonstrated the optical sectioning and out-of-focus background rejection capabilities of this microscope by imaging fluorescently labeled actin filaments in fixed 3T3 cells.

Light-sheet microscopy by confocal line scanning of dual-Bessel beams

We have developed a light-sheet microscope that uses confocal scanning of dual-Bessel beams for illumination. A digital micromirror device (DMD) is placed in the intermediate image plane of the objective used to collect fluorescence and is programmed with two lines of pixels in the “on” state such that the DMD functions as a spatial filter to reject the out-of-focus background generated by the side-lobes of the Bessel beams. The optical sectioning and out-of-focus background rejection capabilities of this microscope were demonstrated by imaging of fluorescently stained actin in human A431 cells. The dual-Bessel beam system enables twice as many photons to be detected per imaging scan, which is useful for low light applications (e.g., single-molecule localization) or imaging at high speed with a superior signal to noise. While demonstrated for two Bessel beams, this approach is scalable to a larger number of beams.

Enhanced 3D localization of individual RNA transcripts via astigmatic imaging

Here we present an automated microscope capable of 3D multi-color single molecule localization of individual messenger RNA molecules in a wide range of cell types. We have implemented astigmatic imaging with a cylindrical lens to improve z-localization, and a maximum likelihood estimator on a graphics processing unit to improve localization precision and speed. This microscope will aid in gene expression analysis by its capability to perform high throughput imaging of thick cells and tissues while still maintaining sufficient z resolution to resolve single RNA transcripts in three dimensions. Enhanced z-localization allows for resolving membrane localized and co-localized transcripts.

Note: Time-gated 3D single quantum dot tracking with simultaneous spinning disk imaging.

We describe recent upgrades to a 3D tracking microscope to include simultaneous Nipkow spinning disk imaging and time-gated single-particle tracking (SPT). Simultaneous 3D molecular tracking and spinning disk imaging enable the visualization of cellular structures and proteins around a given fluorescently labeled target molecule. The addition of photon time-gating to the SPT hardware improves signal to noise by discriminating against Raman scattering and short-lived fluorescence. In contrast to camera-based SPT, single-photon arrival times are recorded, enabling time-resolved spectroscopy (e.g., measurement of fluorescence lifetimes and photon correlations) to be performed during single molecule/particle tracking experiments.

Three dimensional time-gated tracking of non-blinking quantum dots in live cells

Single particle tracking has provided a wealth of information about biophysical processes such as motor protein transport and diffusion in cell membranes. However, motion out of the plane of the microscope or blinking of the fluorescent probe used as a label generally limits observation times to several seconds. Here, we overcome these limitations by using novel non-blinking quantum dots as probes and employing a custom 3D tracking microscope to actively follow motion in three dimensions (3D) in live cells. Signal-to-noise is improved in the cellular milieu through the use of pulsed excitation and time-gated detection.