CCAM Optical Imaging
Fluorescence correlation spectroscopy
Carson
Fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) can provide requisite quantitative data for analysis of molecular interaction networks underlying complex cell biological processes. (FCS) provides the technology to measure concentrations, diffusion coefficients, kinetic constants and conditional operators in living cells (Levin and Carson, 2003). This high resolution method of imaging the movement of fluorescent molecules in and out of a volume has been used to understand the complex regulation of RNA nuclear:cytoplasmic transport and RNA granule trafficking in neurons. In addition to the basic research in the areas of neuronal biology, RNA transport and trafficking, researchers are creating protocols that will make FCS easier for the scientific community to use.
Optical Probe Development
Loew
Fluorescent dyes are significant tools in the study of cellular processes. At CCAM novel chromophores from environmentally sensitive dyes are synthesized and characterized. Membrane associated styryl dyes are a particular interest in the study of transmembrane potentials and signaling events that occur due to voltage changes at the plasma membrane. Combining these dyes with additionally innovative methods of optics creates new quantitative ways of looking at cellular behaviors.