Stimulated Raman versus Inverse Raman: Investigating Depletion Mechanisms for Super-Resolution Raman Microscopy.

Super-resolution fluorescence microscopy has been critical in elucidating the nanoscale structure of biological systems. However, fluorescent labels bring difficulties such as perturbative labeling steps and photobleaching. Thus, label-free super-resolution techniques are of great interest, like our group's 2016 stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) technique, stimulated Raman depletion microscopy (SRDM).

Label-Free Super-Resolution Imaging Techniques.

Biological and material samples contain nanoscale heterogeneities that are unresolvable with conventional microscopy techniques. Super-resolution fluorescence methods can break the optical diffraction limit to observe these features, but they require samples to be fluorescently labeled. Over the past decade, progress has been made toward developing super-resolution techniques that do not require the use of labels.

Analysis of amyloid-like secondary structure in the Cryab-R120G knock-in mouse model of hereditary cataracts by two-dimensional infrared spectroscopy.

αB-crystallin is a small heat shock protein that forms a heterooligomeric complex with αA-crystallin in the ocular lens. It is also widely distributed in tissues throughout the body and has been linked with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, where it is associated with amyloid fibrils. Crystallins can form amorphous aggregates in cataracts as well as more structured amyloid-like fibrils.

Application of 2D IR Bioimaging: Hyperspectral Images of Formalin-Fixed Pancreatic Tissues and Observation of Slow Protein Degradation.

We used two-dimensional IR bioimaging to study the structural heterogeneity of formalin-fixed mouse pancreas. Images were generated from the hyperspectral data sets by plotting quantities associated with the amide I vibrational mode, which is created by the backbone carbonyl stretch. Images that measure the fundamental vibrational frequencies, cross peaks, and anharmonic shifts are presented.

A Proposed Method to Obtain Surface Specificity with Pump-Probe and 2D Spectroscopies.

Surfaces and interfaces are ubiquitous in nature. From cell membranes, to photovoltaic thin films, surfaces have important function in both biological and materials systems. Spectroscopic techniques have been developed to probe systems like these, such as sum frequency generation (SFG) spectroscopies.