Label-free metabolic imaging
NAD(P)H is naturally fluorescent, and its fluorescence lifetime changes when it binds to enzymes. Measuring that lifetime pixel by pixel turns an autofluorescence image into a map of metabolic state, with no labels added. My work here looks at how the measurement behaves in real samples (fixed tissue, cell density, pH, low photon budgets) and how to analyze it robustly.
Selected work
- NAD(P)H fluorescence lifetime measurements in fixed biological tissues. Methods Appl. Fluoresc. 7(5), 2019.
- Autofluorescence lifetime imaging of cellular metabolism: sensitivity towards cell density, pH, intracellular and intercellular heterogeneity. Cytometry A, 2018.
- A shift in central metabolism accompanies virulence activation in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. mBio 11(2), 2020.
- Autofluorescence lifetime imaging with low photon budget. SPIE Photonics West, 2023.
- A novel anisotropy imaging technique for NAD(P)H autofluorescence. Microscopy and Microanalysis, 2019.
Try it
The decay ↔ phasor explorer has an NAD(P)H free/bound preset and a photon-budget simulation.