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The long-term goal of the Penning trap system for the heavy ion accelerator named RAON in Korea is to obtain an order of magnitude higher mass accuracy for short-lived rare isotopes. For that purpose, we are developing a sympathetic cooler for highly charged ions by exploiting laser-cooled Ca+ ions. We installed a prototype octagon chamber with a calcium atom source, a Paul trap, and a helical resonator for the high-voltage RF supply. The laser system is composed of three extended cavity diode lasers (423, 397, 866 nm) plus one UV diode laser (375 nm). The optical frequency stabilization setup is made up of a wavelength meter, a multichannel fiber switch and a PXI system with an 8-channel analog output module. After having obtained a resonant ionization signal from the calcium atomic beam, we applied the RF voltage to the trap electrodes and illuminated the cooling lasers at the center of the trap. We successfully observed a laser-cooled ion bunch and a linearly aligned ion string by using imaging optics and an electron multiplying charge coupled device (EMCCD) camera. In addition to the experimental effort, we performed a simulation study for cooling 132Sn10+ ions inside a laser-cooled 40Ca+ Coulomb crystal by using a parallel computation technique.

To quantify more precisely and more reliably diffusion and reaction properties of biomolecules in living cells, a novel closed description in 3D of both the bleach and the post-bleach segment of fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) data acquired at a point, i.e., a diffraction-limited observation area, termed point FRAP, is presented. It covers a complete coupled reaction-diffusion scheme for mobile molecules undergoing transient or long-term immobilization because of binding. We assess and confirm the feasibility with numerical solutions of the differential equations. By applying this model to free EYFP expressed in HeLa cells using a customized confocal laser scanning microscope that integrates point FRAP and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS), the applicability is validated by comparison with results from FCS. We show that by taking diffusion during bleaching into consideration and/or by employing a global analysis of series of bleach times, the results can be improved significantly. As the point FRAP approach allows to obtain data with diffraction-limited positioning accuracy, diffusion and binding properties of the exon-exon junction complex (EJC) components REF2-II and Magoh are obtained at different localizations in the nucleus of MCF7 cells and refine our view on the position-dependent association of the EJC factors with a maturating mRNP complex. Our findings corroborate the concept of combining point FRAP and FCS for a better understanding of the underlying diffusion and binding processes. (c) 2013 International Society for Advancement of Cytometry

International audience; Fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) between fluorescent proteins (FPs) is a powerful method to visualize and quantify protein-protein interaction in living cells. Unfortunately, the emission bleed-through of FPs limits the usage of this complex technique. To circumvent undesirable excitation of the acceptor fluorophore, using two-photon excitation, we searched for FRET pairs that show selective excitation of the donor but not of the acceptor fluorescent molecule. We found this property in the fluorescent cyan fluorescent protein (CFP)/yellow fluorescent protein (YFP) and YFP/ mCherry FRET pairs and performed two-photon excited FRET spectral imaging to quantify protein interactions on the later pair that shows better spectral discrimination. Applying non-negative matrix factorization to unmix two-photon excited spectral imaging data, we were able to eliminate the donor bleed-through as well as the auto-fluorescence. As a result, we achieved FRET quantification by means of a single spectral acquisition, making the FRET approach not only easy and straightforward but also less prone to calculation artifacts. As an application of our approach, the intermolecular interaction of amyloid precursor protein and the adaptor protein Fe65 associated with Alzheimer's disease was quantified. We believe that the FRET approach using two-pho-ton and fluorescent YFP/mCherry pair is a promising method to monitor protein interaction in living cells. ' 2011 International Society for Advancement of Cytometry Key terms fluorescence resonance energy transfer; two-photon spectral imaging; unmixing; protein protein interaction; YFP; mCherry THE current advances in light microscopy and engineering of fluorescent proteins (FPs) with improved properties and altered colors have provided the cellular biologist with the ability to investigate fine molecular events in living cells (1,2). Properly combined, fluorescent molecules allow the study of protein conformational changes or inter protein interaction by means of fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) (3,4). When an excited donor fluorophore is proximate (=10 nm) and suitably oriented to an acceptor molecule, FRET occurs through a nonradiative dipole-dipole interaction. Currently, the most popular FP pairs for FRET analysis are cyan with yellow fluorescent protein (CFP/YFP) and green with red fluorescent protein (GFP/RFP) (5,6). Among the methodologies based on nonradiative resonance energy transfer, two approaches prevail, the fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM), and the fluorescence intensity-based FRET imaging. The FLIM is known to be cumbersome to require highly specialized equipment and as well to involve long acquisition time (7). To the contrary, fluorescence intensity-based FRET estimation provides

Dependence of optical trapping force on the trap depth is examined by calculating the intensity distribution of light focused through two media with different refractive indices. The optical trapping forces on the microsphere in the ray optics regime were measured as a function of the trap depth. As the trap depth decreased, the optical trapping force increased. These results are useful for designing a chamber to trap particles with a low-power laser and for explaining the inconsistency among the reported experimental results.

Multimodal nanoparticles have been extensively studied for target-specific imaging and therapy of various diseases, including cancer. In this study, radiolabeled arginine-glycine-aspartic acid (RGD)-functionalized Er(3+)/Yb(3+) co-doped NaGdF(4) upconversion nanophosphors (UCNPs) were synthesized and evaluated as a multimodal PET/MR/optical probe with tumor angiogenesis-specific targeting properties.A dimeric cyclic RGDyk ((cRGDyk)(2)) peptide was conjugated to polyacrylic acid-coated NaGdF(4):Yb(3+)/Er(3+) UCNPs along with polyethylene glycol molecules and was consecutively radiolabeled with (124)I. In vitro cytotoxicity testing was performed for 3 d. Upconversion luminescence imaging of (cRGDyk)(2)-UCNP was performed on U87MG cells with a laboratory-made confocal microscope. In vivo small-animal PET and clinical 3-T T1-weighted MR imaging of (124)I-labeled RGD-functionalized UCNPs was acquired with or without blocking of cyclic RGD peptide in a U87MG tumor model. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry and biologic transmission electron microscopy were done to evaluate gadolinium concentration and UCNP localization, respectively.Polymer-coated UCNPs and dimeric RGD-conjugated UCNPs were monodispersely synthesized, and those of hydrodynamic size were 30 ± 8 nm and 32 ± 9 nm, respectively. (cRGDyk)(2)-UCNPs have a low cytotoxic effect on cells. Upconversion luminescence signals of (cRGDyk)(2)-UCNP were specifically localized on the surface of U87MG cells. (124)I-c(RGDyk)(2)-UCNPs specifically accumulated in U87MG tumors (2.8 ± 0.8 vs. 1.3 ± 0.4 percentage injected dose per gram in the blocking experiment), and T1-weighted MR images showed significant positive contrast enhancement in U87MG tumors. Tumor localization of (124)I-c(RGDyk)(2)-UCNPs was confirmed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry and biologic transmission electron microscopy analysis.These results suggest that (124)I-labeled RGD-functionalized UCNPs have high specificity for α(v)β(3) integrin-expressing U87MG tumor cells and xenografted tumor models. Multimodal UCNPs can be used as a platform nanoparticle with multimodal imaging for cancer-specific diagnoses.

To quantify more precisely and more reliably diffusion and reaction properties of biomolecules in living cells, a novel closed description in 3D of both the bleach and the post-bleach segment of fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) data acquired at a point, i.e., a diffraction-limited observation area, termed point FRAP, is presented. It covers a complete coupled reaction-diffusion scheme for mobile molecules undergoing transient or long-term immobilization because of binding. We assess and confirm the feasibility with numerical solutions of the differential equations. By applying this model to free EYFP expressed in HeLa cells using a customized confocal laser scanning microscope that integrates point FRAP and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS), the applicability is validated by comparison with results from FCS. We show that by taking diffusion during bleaching into consideration and/or by employing a global analysis of series of bleach times, the results can be improved significantly. As the point FRAP approach allows to obtain data with diffraction-limited positioning accuracy, diffusion and binding properties of the exon-exon junction complex (EJC) components REF2-II and Magoh are obtained at different localizations in the nucleus of MCF7 cells and refine our view on the position-dependent association of the EJC factors with a maturating mRNP complex. Our findings corroborate the concept of combining point FRAP and FCS for a better understanding of the underlying diffusion and binding processes.

We introduce a fast spectral imaging system using an electron-multiplying charge-coupled device (EM-CCD) as a detector. Our system is combined with a custom-built two-photon excitation laser scanning microscope and has 80 detection channels, which allow for high spectral resolution and fast frame acquisition without any loss of spectral information. To demonstrate the efficiency of our approach, we applied this technology to monitor fluorescent proteins and quantum dot-labeled G protein-coupled receptors in living cells as well as autofluorescence in tissue samples.

The exon–exon junction complex (EJC) forms via association of proteins during splicing of mRNA in a defined manner. Its organization provides a link between biogenesis, nuclear export, and translation of the transcripts. The EJC proteins accumulate in nuclear speckles alongside most other splicing-related factors. We followed the establishment of the EJC on mRNA by investigating the mobility and interactions of a representative set of EJC factors in vivo using a complementary analysis with different fluorescence fluctuation microscopy techniques. Our observations are compatible with cotranscriptional binding of the EJC protein UAP56 confirming that it is involved in the initial phase of EJC formation. RNPS1, REF/Aly, Y14/Magoh, and NXF1 showed a reduction in their nuclear mobility when complexed with RNA. They interacted with nuclear speckles, in which both transiently and long-term immobilized factors were identified. The location- and RNA-dependent differences in the mobility between factors of the so-called outer shell and inner core of the EJC suggest a hypothetical model, in which mRNA is retained in speckles when EJC outer-shell factors are missing.

Microparticles including biological cells were trapped and manipulated using a continuous wave tweezer and a femtosecond laser tweezer. The difference of the optical trapping force between CW and femtosecond optical tweezers increased as the particle size decreased, possibly due to the self-focusing effect of the ultrashort pulses. Also, the white damage spots were generated near the focus during femtosecond optical trapping of biological cells even with extremely low average power. The instantaneous optical damage threshold was measured as a function of the trap depth as well. These results may help to optimize the optical trapping of biological cells using femtosecond lasers.

Using an acousto-optic beam deflector and a line scan camera, we constructed a non-mechanical, slit-scanning confocal microscope. It generates two-dimensional 512x512 images with speed of 60 frames/sec, which can be easily expanded, to 100 frames/sec. The measured axial and lateral resolutions of the system are 3.3 mm and

We trapped and manipulated the micro-particles by two beam interference. The micro-particles were pulled toward the bright fringe and were aligned along the periodic interference pattern. We observed the distribution of trapped particles at the various polarization configurations by adjusting the polarization states and measured the optical force acting on the particles. The particles were trapped in bright fringe by intensity gradient in the case of parallel polarization state. In the case of perpendicular polarization state, the particles aligned along periodic pattern even though there was no intensity modulation. Consequently, the results showed that the optical force can be generated from not only the intensity modulation but also no intensity modulation.

Summary form only given. Microspheres (2 /spl mu/m-diameter spheres) are trapped and manipulated using interferometric optical tweezers. The dielectric microspheres were aligned along the focused interference pattern generated by a Michelson interferometer and two-beam interference. Not only the shape of cell but the direction of budding and growth of the yeast cell can be changed by focused interference fringes. Although the yeast cell is trapped for several hours, it doesn't show any optical damage (we used near infrared lasers as trapping light source). Mechanical properties of budding yeast can be measured using the interferometric optical trap. Thus, interferometric optical tweezers enable one to trap and manipulate multiple yeast cells. We observed what influence the yeast cells in the optical potential well have on one another.

We present an implementation of fluorescence correlation spectroscopy with spectrally resolved detection based on a combined commercial confocal laser scanning/fluorescence correlation spectroscopy microscope. We have replaced the conventional detection scheme by a prism-based spectrometer and an electron-multiplying charge-coupled device camera used to record the photons. This allows us to read out more than 80,000 full spectra per second with a signal-to-noise ratio and a quantum efficiency high enough to allow single photon counting. We can identify up to four spectrally different quantum dots in vitro and demonstrate that spectrally resolved detection can be used to characterize photophysical properties of fluorophores by measuring the spectral dependence of quantum dot fluorescence emission intermittence. Moreover, we can confirm intracellular cross-correlation results as acquired with a conventional setup and show that spectral flexibility can help to optimize the choice of the detection windows.

Using a line scan camera and an acousto-optic deflector (AOD), we constructed a high-speed confocal laser line-scanning microscope that can generate confocal images (512 x 512 pixels) with up to 191 frames/s without any mechanically moving parts. The line scanner consists of an AOD and a cylindrical lens, which creates a line focus sweeping over the sample. The measured resolutions in z (depth), x (perpendicular to line focus), and y (direction of line focus) directions are 3.3 mum, 0.7 mum and 0.9 mum, respectively, with a 50x objective lens. This confocal microscope may be useful for analyzing fast phenomena during biological and chemical interactions and for fast 3D image reconstruction.