Fluorescence Microscopy Imaging in Biomedical Sciences

Abstract

Fluorescence microscopy is an important tool in biological sciences which provides excellent sensitivity for detecting very low concentrations of molecules over broad spatial and temporal dimensions. With fast developments of new fluorescent probes, advanced electronic and optical devices, and sophisticated data acquisition and analysis software, fluorescence microscopy resides on the central stage of life-sciences research. This chapter covers several commonly used and advanced fluorescence microscopy techniques and focuses on fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM). A number of FLIM systems and their applications are reviewed. As an example, we describe how we built and calibrated a two-photon excitation time-correlated single-photon counting (TPE-TCSPC) FLIM system and employed the system to investigate protein-protein interactions in living cells.