Self-focusing in multi-photon excitation laser scanning microscopy

Reference Number: 1779

Background

In order to view macromolecules within living cells using a light microscope, improvement in resolution is required. Methods for achieving super-resolution have been proposed, however, super-resolving microscopes have had little impact. The reasons are not only high cost and instrumental complexity but each method also has serious practical disadvantages:

• Stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy requires the use of special fluorophores and sophisticated multi-wavelength laser sources
• Photoactivation microscopy (PALM) needs the specimen to be frozen through many cycles, each cycle consisting of activation and then imaging to the full bleaching of a subset of photoprotein molecules
• Stochastic methods such as STORM and structured illumination methods are slow and computationally intensive and do not provide as large an improvement in resolution as the previous methods, at least with the available linear optics.

Technology

Researchers at the University of Strathclyde are developing a novel and simple method for super-resolution nonlinear optical microscopy based on the nonlinear optical process of self-focusing. This has the advantage that it can be used with pre-existing multi-photon fluorescence microscopes and with all the normal fluorochromes and, in principle, with living cells.
The proposed method, which is compliant with existing nonlinear optical microscope platforms, would facilitate widespread uptake of super-resolution microscopy.

Key Benefits

• Super resolution for imaging living cells
• Compliant with existing nonlinear optical microscope platforms
• Circumvents the need for complex instrumentation and labour-intensive analysis methods such as STED or PALM
• Minimum modification to microscopes currently in use

Markets and Applications

• Microscopy
• Life Sciences research

Licensing and Development

This technology is protected by a patent application filed by the University of Strathclyde as GB0913782.9. Contact is welcomed for organisations interested in developing, licensing or exploiting this technology.

For further information, please contact Research & Knowledge Exchange Services:
e: rkes@strath.ac.uk t: 0141 548 3707 f: 0141 552 4409