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Metal-induced energy transfer for live cell nanoscopy

Nature Photonics volume 8, pages 124–127 (2014)Cite this article

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Abstract

The discovery of Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET)1 has revolutionized our ability to measure inter- and intramolecular distances on the nanometre scale using fluorescence imaging. The phenomenon is based on electromagnetic-field-mediated energy transfer from an optically excited donor to an acceptor. We replace the acceptor molecule with a metallic film and use the measured energy transfer efficiency from donor molecules to metal surface plasmons2 to accurately deduce the distance between the molecules and metal. Like FRET, this makes it possible to localize emitters with nanometre accuracy, but the distance range over which efficient energy transfer takes place is an order of magnitude larger than for conventional FRET. This creates a new way to localize fluorescent entities on a molecular scale, over a distance range of more than 100 nm. We demonstrate the power of this method by profiling the basal lipid membrane of living cells.

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Figure 1: Metal-induced fluorescence lifetime modification.
Figure 2: Fluorescence lifetime imaging.
Figure 3: Three-dimensional reconstruction of the basal cell membrane.
Figure 4: Comparison of three cell lines.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the referees of this manuscript for enhancing the quality of the work. The authors also thank S. W. Hell for valuable advice. Financial support by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft is acknowledged (SFB 937, project A5, A14). A.I.C. also acknowledges financial support from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, and J.R. acknowledges financial support from the Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. III. Institute of Physics, Georg August University, Göttingen, 37077, Germany

    Alexey I. Chizhik, Ingo Gregor & Jörg Enderlein

  2. Institute of Physical Chemistry, University of Göttingen, Tammannstrasse 6, Göttingen, 37077, Germany

    Jan Rother & Andreas Janshoff

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  1. Alexey I. Chizhik
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Contributions

A.I.C., J.R., A.J. and J.E. conceived and designed the experiments. A.I.C. and J.R. performed the experiments. A.I.C., J.R. and J.E. analysed the data. A.I.C., J.R., I.G., A.J. and J.E. contributed materials/analysis tools. A.I.C., J.R., A.J. and J.E. wrote the paper.

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Correspondence to Alexey I. Chizhik or Jörg Enderlein.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Chizhik, A., Rother, J., Gregor, I. et al. Metal-induced energy transfer for live cell nanoscopy. Nature Photon 8, 124–127 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2013.345

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