July 27, 2021
Keio University School of Medicine
Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo
Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST)
A collaborative research group including Professor Yasuyuki Ozeki and doctoral student Jingwen Shou from the Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Systems, Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, and Project Assistant Professor Robert K. Oda, Associate Professor Mutsuki Amano, and Professor Masato Yasui from the Department of Pharmacology, Keio University School of Medicine, along with researchers from Columbia University, Tsinghua University, and the University of Hawaii, has developed a technology for the detailed analysis of complex and diverse cells. This technology integrates stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) microscopy, which detects intracellular biomolecules via stimulated Raman scattering, with fluorescence microscopy, which detects the emission of fluorescent molecules.
The developed integrated SRS and fluorescence imaging system can rapidly switch between molecular vibration frequencies, fluorescence excitation wavelengths, and fluorescence detection wavelengths. It can acquire Raman and fluorescence images at 30 frames per second while allowing the molecular vibration frequency, fluorescence excitation wavelength, and fluorescence detection wavelength to be set for each frame. This has significantly reduced the time required for highly multiplexed imaging of biological samples.
Using this system, it is now possible to perform 8-plex imaging of live cells labeled with Raman and fluorescent tags in under 30 seconds. This is more than 20 times faster than conventional SRS and fluorescence microscopes. The team also successfully used this method to investigate in detail the complex movements and interactions of organelles within living cells, as well as the spatial distribution of organelles across a large number of cells.
This technology is expected to enable more detailed analysis of the mechanisms within complex and diverse cells, contributing to the elucidation of the mechanisms of life and finding applications in drug development.
The results of this research were published in the online edition of the scientific journal "iScience" by Elsevier on July 27, 2021.
For the full press release, please see below.