Researchers from the Columbia University have developed a new imaging method to help in visualizing biomolecules within biological systems without disturbing their original setup as much as possible.
Considered as an important success by the scientific community, this new method will allow researchers to capture images of biomolecules including amino acids, lipids, and nucleic acids. Imaging these molecules is important in inferring how they behave within their respective cellular systems.
The method was developed by Wei Min, an assistant professor of Chemistry from Columbia University and his team. He declined to use the traditional flourophore tagging to view these small biomolecules and used a laser-based technology instead. This technology, referred to as the stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) microscopy was used together with a mixture of small yet very vibrant alkaline tag.
The use of the alkaline tag enables the researchers to visualize the molecules without disturbing them in their natural state. Furthermore, tuning the laser colors according to the alkyne's frequency allows for a visualization of the stretching motion of the bond carried by these molecules. Aside from that, this new method can also produce a three-dimensional rendition of the molecule map of an organism's cells and tissues.
"The major advantages of our technique lie in the superb sensitivity, specificity and biocompatibility with dynamics of live cells and animals for small molecule imaging," lead author Lu Wei said in a press release.
The next application of this new imaging method would be for the detection of tumor cells as well as looking into drug pharmacokinetics in animal samples. Min's team is also preparing for creating another alkaline-based imaging method for clearer and versatile visualizations.
Min stated that this new technique will enable scientists to probe deeper into the world of biomolecules.
"In addition to basic research, our technique could also contribute greatly to translational applications. I believe SRS imaging of alkyne tags could do for small biomolecules what fluorescence imaging of fluorophores such as GFP has done for larger species", Min stated.
This study was published in the Mar. 2 issue of Nature Methods.
