FLIM is a widely used microscopy technique that depends on the phenomenon of fluorescence, in which a substance, called a fluorophore, spontaneously emits light of a longer wavelength after having absorbed light from an external source. In FLIM, samples are excited by ultra-short pulses of light and the time is measured between the absorption and emission of a photon. This characteristic ‘lifetime’ is dependent on the environment of the fluorophore, allowing scientists to deduce information about molecular interactions, temperature or pH from the gathered data. The technique enables researchers to visualize biochemical reactions within living cells, while lifetime differences in tissues can also be used to distinguish tumorous from healthy cells and thus diagnose cancer.
Commercially available systems typically scan a sample pixel by pixel, which is very time-consuming for large samples. Raphaël Marchand, a postdoc in the Juffmann Lab, has developed a detector that is able to scan millions of pixels at once. “This could enable us to use the technology in applications where it was not possible before, for example as a live diagnostics tool during surgeries or in super-resolution light microscopy”, explains group leader Thomas Juffmann. The team will collaborate with researchers at the University of Bielefeld and the Medical University of Vienna to demonstrate the utility of their sensor for these two applications.
About ERC Proof of Concept Grants:
ERC Proof of Concept grants aim at funding further work to verify the innovation potential of ideas arising from ERC funded projects. The objective is to enable ERC-funded ideas to progress on the path from ground-breaking research towards innovation. The grant amounts to a sum of 150.000 EUR for a period of 12 months.