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  • What Is Widefield Imaging?

    Any microscope technique where the entire sample is exposed to light is known as ‘widefield’ imaging. The counterpart to widefield is confocal, where pinholes are used to block most of the light to and from the sample

  • Introduction To Single Molecule Microscopy

    Fluorescence microscopy is a workhorse technique in biological sciences allowing specific biological structures to be labeled and imaged with high contrast. Single molecule imaging represents a subset of fluorescence microscopy techniques that uses fluorescent tags to detect and analyze individual single molecules.

  • Labeling Proteins For Single Molecule Imaging

    Fluorescent microscopy techniques rely on the fact that molecules of interest fluoresce or can be made to fluoresce. Most proteins of interest require a fluorescent tag, as intrinsically fluorescent POIs are rare and the exception to this rule.

  • Brillouin Microscopy

    The mechanical properties of cells and tissues play an important role in cellular function and disease development. However, standard methods for probing these mechanical properties are mostly invasive and limited to the sample’s surface.

  • Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy (FCS)

    Fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) measures fluctuations in fluorescence intensity coming from any physical, chemical, or biological effects on the fluorophore of interest. In principle, light is focused in an area of the sample and the fluctuations in the fluorescence intensity in this area are measured.

  • Optical Trapping

    Optical Trapping, also known as Optical Tweezers (OT), is a technique that uses light scattering to hold an object in place. OT is based on a concept outlined by Arthur Ashkin in 1986 that later earned him the Nobel Prize in Physics 2018.

  • What Is Single Molecule Microscopy?

    While most fluorescent microscopy involves looking at hundreds or thousands of fluorophores spread throughout a sample, it is sometimes necessary to observe specific molecules or small groups of molecules.

  • What Is TIRF Microscopy?

    Total internal reflection (TIR) can occur when light is moving from one medium to a different medium e.g. air to glass, glass to water, water to oil. At certain angles, rather than being refracted into the new medium, the light is reflected back into the medium it came from.

  • Fluorescent Optical Projection Tomography

    Current methods used to construct 3D optical images are limited in the maximum thickness of certain samples. Confocal microscopy (in combination with two-photon approaches) is limited to ~1 mm depth, meaning that larger samples would have to be further sectioned and would not remain intact.

  • Fluorescence Recovery After Photobleaching (FRAP)

    Fluorescent markers become excited by specific wavelengths of light, and then emit light in a different wavelength. This makes them very valuable for scientific research in order to locate cells/proteins and even track them over time.

  • Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET)

    Similarly to how two magnets will only attract each other when they are close enough, fluorescence energy can also be transferred between fluorescent molecules if they are in extremely close proximity. This is the principle behind Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET), which is a technique used to determine whether two fluorescent molecules are within a certain distance of one another.

  • Light Sheet Microscopy at University of St. Andrews

    The Optical Manipulation Group at the University St. Andrews, led by Prof. Kishan Dholakia, looks at the science of light in terms of physics and biomedical research, fundamental and applied, in order to further the agenda for healthcare applications.