Work

Sizing Subcellular Organelles and Nanoparticles Confined within Aqueous Droplets

Year: 2008

Type: article

Abstract: This article describes two complementary techniques, single-particle tracking and correlation spectroscopy, for accurately sizing nanoparticles confined within picoliter volume aqueous droplets. Single-particle tracking works well with bright particles that can be continuously illuminated and imaged, and we demonstrated this approach for sizing single fluorescent beads. Fluorescence correlation spectroscopy detects small intensity bursts from particles or molecules diffusing through the confocal probe volume, which works well with dim and rapidly diffusing particles or molecules; we demonstrated FCS for sizing synaptic vesicles confined in aqueous droplets. In combination with recent advances in droplet manipulations and analysis, we anticipate this capability to size single nanoparticles and molecules in free solution will complement existing tools for probing cellular systems, subcellular organelles, and nanoparticles.

Source: Analytical Chemistry

DOI: 10.1021/ac8000385

Authors: Jennifer C. Gadd, Christopher L. Kuyper, Bryant S. Fujimoto, Richard W. Allen, Daniel T. Chiu

Institution: University of Washington

Language: English

Topic: Advanced Fluorescence Microscopy Techniques

Subfield: Biophysics

Field: Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Domain: Life Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funders: National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering

Awards: G2516341936, Profiling Biochemical Contents of Single Mitochondria, High-Resolution Analysis of Synaptic Proteins, G6819848334