Assessment of a Silicon-Photomultiplier-Based Platform for the Measurement of Intracellular Calcium Dynamics with Targeted Aequorin.

Ca is among the most important intracellular second messengers participating in a plethora of biological processes, and the measurement of Ca fluctuations is significant in the phenomenology of the underlying processes. Aequorin-based Ca probes represent an invaluable tool for reliable measurement of Ca concentrations and dynamics in different subcellular compartments. However, their use is limited due to the lack on the market of ready-to-use, cost-effective, and portable devices for the detection and readout of the low-intensity bioluminescence signal produced by these probes.

Optimizing Silicon photomultipliers for Quantum Optics.

Silicon Photomultipliers are potentially ideal detectors for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information studies based on mesoscopic states of light. However, their non-idealities hampered their use so far. An optimal mode of operation has been developed and it is presented here, proving that this class of sensors can actually be exploited for the characterization of both classical and quantum properties of light.