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Titze VM, Caixeiro S, Dinh VS, König M, Rübsam M, Pathak N, Schumacher AL, Germer M, Kukat C, Niessen CM, Schubert M, Gather MC. Hyperspectral confocal imaging for high-throughput readout and analysis of bio-integrated microlasers. Nat Protoc 2024; 19:928-959. [PMID: 38238582 DOI: 10.1038/s41596-023-00924-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/01/2023] [Accepted: 10/03/2023] [Indexed: 03/10/2024]
Abstract
Integrating micro- and nanolasers into live cells, tissue cultures and small animals is an emerging and rapidly evolving technique that offers noninvasive interrogation and labeling with unprecedented information density. The bright and distinct spectra of such lasers make this approach particularly attractive for high-throughput applications requiring single-cell specificity, such as multiplexed cell tracking and intracellular biosensing. The implementation of these applications requires high-resolution, high-speed spectral readout and advanced analysis routines, which leads to unique technical challenges. Here, we present a modular approach consisting of two separate procedures. The first procedure instructs users on how to efficiently integrate different types of lasers into living cells, and the second procedure presents a workflow for obtaining intracellular lasing spectra with high spectral resolution and up to 125-kHz readout rate and starts from the construction of a custom hyperspectral confocal microscope. We provide guidance on running hyperspectral imaging routines for various experimental designs and recommend specific workflows for processing the resulting large data sets along with an open-source Python library of functions covering the analysis pipeline. We illustrate three applications including the rapid, large-volume mapping of absolute refractive index by using polystyrene microbead lasers, the intracellular sensing of cardiac contractility with polystyrene microbead lasers and long-term cell tracking by using semiconductor nanodisk lasers. Our sample preparation and imaging procedures require 2 days, and setting up the hyperspectral confocal microscope for microlaser characterization requires <2 weeks to complete for users with limited experience in optical and software engineering.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vera M Titze
- Centre of Biophotonics, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK.
- Humboldt Centre for Nano- and Biophotonics, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
| | - Soraya Caixeiro
- Humboldt Centre for Nano- and Biophotonics, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
| | - Vinh San Dinh
- Centre of Biophotonics, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK
- Graduate Program in Applied Physics, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA
| | - Matthias König
- Humboldt Centre for Nano- and Biophotonics, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
| | - Matthias Rübsam
- Department of Cell Biology of the Skin, University Hospital Cologne, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
- Cologne Excellence Cluster on Cellular Stress Responses in Aging-Associated Disease (CECAD), University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
| | - Nachiket Pathak
- Humboldt Centre for Nano- and Biophotonics, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
| | - Anna-Lena Schumacher
- FACS & Imaging Core Facility, Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing, Cologne, Germany
| | - Maximilian Germer
- FACS & Imaging Core Facility, Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing, Cologne, Germany
| | - Christian Kukat
- FACS & Imaging Core Facility, Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing, Cologne, Germany
| | - Carien M Niessen
- Department of Cell Biology of the Skin, University Hospital Cologne, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
- Cologne Excellence Cluster on Cellular Stress Responses in Aging-Associated Disease (CECAD), University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
| | - Marcel Schubert
- Centre of Biophotonics, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK.
- Humboldt Centre for Nano- and Biophotonics, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
| | - Malte C Gather
- Centre of Biophotonics, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK.
- Humboldt Centre for Nano- and Biophotonics, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
- Cologne Excellence Cluster on Cellular Stress Responses in Aging-Associated Disease (CECAD), University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
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Rusakov K, Demianiuk S, Jalonicka E, Hanczyc P. Cavity Lasing Characteristics of Thioflavin T and Thioflavin X in Different Solvents and Their Interaction with DNA for the Controlled Reduction of a Light Amplification Threshold in Solid-State Biofilms. ACS Appl Opt Mater 2023; 1:1922-1929. [PMID: 38149104 PMCID: PMC10749465 DOI: 10.1021/acsaom.3c00264] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/01/2023] [Revised: 09/21/2023] [Accepted: 09/29/2023] [Indexed: 12/28/2023]
Abstract
The lasing characteristics of Thioflavin T (ThT) and Thioflavin X (ThX) dyes were investigated in solvents with increasing viscosity: water, ethanol, butanol, ethylene glycol, and glycerol and three forms of DNA (double-helix natural, fragmented, and aggregated). The results identified that lasing thresholds and photostability depend on three critical factors: the solvation shell surrounding dye molecules, the organization of their dipole moments, which is driven by the DNA structure, and the molecules diffusion coefficient in the excitation focal spot. The research highlights that dye doped to DNA accumulated in binding sites fosters long-range dye orientation, facilitating a marked reduction of lasing thresholds in the liquid phase as well as amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) thresholds in the solid state. Leveraging insights from lasing characteristics obtained in liquid, ASE in the solid state was optimized in a controlled way by changing the parameters influencing the DNA structure, i.e., magnesium salt addition, heating, and sonication. The modifications led to a large decrease in the ASE thresholds in the dye-doped DNA films. It was shown that the examination of lasing in cavities can be useful for preparing optical materials with improved architectures and functionalities for solid-state lasers.
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Affiliation(s)
- K. Rusakov
- Institute
of Experimental Physics, Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw, Pasteura 5, 02-093 Warsaw, Poland
- Faculty
of Construction and Environmental Engineering, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, 02-776 Warsaw, Poland
| | - S. Demianiuk
- Institute
of Experimental Physics, Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw, Pasteura 5, 02-093 Warsaw, Poland
| | - E. Jalonicka
- Institute
of Experimental Physics, Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw, Pasteura 5, 02-093 Warsaw, Poland
| | - P. Hanczyc
- Institute
of Experimental Physics, Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw, Pasteura 5, 02-093 Warsaw, Poland
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Wang Z, Fang G, Gao Z, Liao Y, Gong C, Kim M, Chang GE, Feng S, Xu T, Liu T, Chen YC. Autonomous Microlasers for Profiling Extracellular Vesicles from Cancer Spheroids. Nano Lett 2023; 23:2502-2510. [PMID: 36926974 DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.2c04123] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
Self-propelled micro/nanomotors are emergent intelligent sensors for analyzing extracellular biomarkers in circulating biological fluids. Conventional luminescent motors are often masked by a highly dynamic and scattered environment, creating challenges to characterize biomarkers or subtle binding dynamics. Here we introduce a strategy to amplify subtle signals by coupling strong light-matter interactions on micromotors. A smart whispering-gallery-mode microlaser that can self-propel and analyze extracellular biomarkers is demonstrated through a liquid crystal microdroplet. Lasing spectral responses induced by cavity energy transfer were employed to reflect the abundance of protein biomarkers, generating exclusive molecular labels for cellular profiling of exosomes derived from 3D multicellular cancer spheroids. Finally, a microfluidic biosystem with different tumor-derived exosomes was employed to elaborate its sensing capability in complex environments. The proposed autonomous microlaser exhibits a promising method for both fundamental biological science and applications in drug screening, phenotyping, and organ-on-chip applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ziyihui Wang
- School of Precision Instrument and Optoelectronics Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
- School of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Ave., Singapore 639798, Singapore
| | - Guocheng Fang
- School of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Ave., Singapore 639798, Singapore
| | - Zehang Gao
- State Key Laboratory of Transducer Technology, Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Science, Shanghai, 200050, China
- Department of Clinical Laboratory, Third Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangdong 510150, China
| | - Yikai Liao
- School of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Ave., Singapore 639798, Singapore
| | - Chaoyang Gong
- School of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Ave., Singapore 639798, Singapore
| | - Munho Kim
- School of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Ave., Singapore 639798, Singapore
| | - Guo-En Chang
- Department of Mechanical Engineering and Advanced Institute of Manufacturing with High-Tech Innovations, National Chung Cheng University, Chiayi 62102, Taiwan
| | - Shilun Feng
- State Key Laboratory of Transducer Technology, Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Science, Shanghai, 200050, China
| | - Tianhua Xu
- School of Precision Instrument and Optoelectronics Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
- School of Engineering, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, United Kingdom
| | - Tiegen Liu
- School of Precision Instrument and Optoelectronics Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
| | - Yu-Cheng Chen
- School of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Ave., Singapore 639798, Singapore
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