High light field confinement for fluorescent correlation spectroscopy using a solid immersion lens

Integrated fluorescence correlation spectroscopy device for point-of-care clinical applications

We describe an optical system which reduces the cost and complexity of fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS), intended to increase the suitability of the technique for clinical use. Integration of the focusing optics and sample chamber into a plastic component produces a design which is simple to align and operate. We validate the system by measurements on fluorescent dye, and compare the results to a commercial instrument. In addition, we demonstrate its application to measurements of concentration and multimerization of the clinically relevant protein von Willebrand factor (vWF) in human plasma.

Photonic methods to enhance fluorescence correlation spectroscopy and single molecule fluorescence detection

Recent advances in nanophotonics open the way for promising applications towards efficient single molecule fluorescence analysis. In this review, we discuss how photonic methods bring innovative solutions for two essential questions: how to detect a single molecule in a highly concentrated solution, and how to enhance the faint optical signal emitted per molecule? The focus is set primarily on the widely used technique of fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS), yet the discussion can be extended to other single molecule detection methods.

Improvement of Biomolecule Quantification Precision and Use of a Single-Element Aspheric Objective Lens in Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy

We found a way to increase the precision with which biomolecules present at concentrations below 10(-10) M can be quantified by fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS). The effectiveness of the way was demonstrated experimentally by using a single-element aspheric objective lens, which was newly developed to reduce the cost of FCS instruments. In the first part of this paper, the relative standard deviation (RSD) of FCS-based concentration measurements is estimated theoretically by an analytical approximation assuming the detection volume profiles in FCS setups to be Gaussian and by molecular simulations in which more realistic profiles are calculated from physical parameters of the measurement setups. In a limit of infinitely bright molecules and zero background emission, the analytical approximation predicts that the RSD at a concentration is minimized when the mean number of molecules in a detection volume is approximately 0.5. A detection volume of the order of 10(-13) L thus gives smaller RSD values for concentrations from 10(-11) to 10(-10) M than does one of the order of 10(-15) L, which is widely used in FCS. This prediction is supported by the molecular simulations, taking into account the finite molecule brightness and background emission. In the second part of the paper, the RSD is evaluated experimentally with an FCS setup with a detection volume of 1.1 x 10(-13) L. The newly developed objective lens, serving as the bottom of the sample cell in this setup, has a large numerical aperture (0.9) without using immersion liquid. When a calibration line was made by 30-s FCS measurements of Cy3-labeled, 112-mer single-stranded DNA solutions, the RSD roughly agreed with the simulation result and was less than 0.1 for DNA concentrations from 2 x 10(-11) to 10(-10) M.