Direct Video Recording of Cell Signaling Complexes

The University of Albuquerque has designed a hyperspectral microscope (HSM) around an Andor iXon 860 high-speed EMCCD detection system to visualize membrane receptor dynamics at the molecular level in living cells. The HSM provides acquisition rates of 27 fps over a 28 square micrometer field of view with each pixel collecting 128 spectral channels, allowing the determination of stoichiometry and dynamics of small
oligomers unmeasurable by any other technique.

Led by Professor Keith Lidke, the New Mexico team performed single particle tracking of up to eight spectrally distinct species of quantum dots (QDs), the distinct emission spectra of the QDs allowing localization with approx. 10 nm precision even when the probes were clustered at spatial scales below the diffraction limit.