PinkyCaMP a mScarlet-based calcium sensor with exceptional brightness, photostability, and multiplexing capabilities.

Genetically encoded calcium (Ca ) indicators (GECIs) are widely used for imaging neuronal activity, yet current limitations of existing red fluorescent GECIs have constrained their applicability. The inherently dim fluorescence and low signal-to-noise ratio of red-shifted GECIs have posed significant challenges. More critically, several red-fluorescent GECIs exhibit photoswitching when exposed to blue light, thereby limiting their applicability in all- optical experimental approaches.

Super-Resolution Microscopy Opens New Doors to Life at the Nanoscale.

Super-resolution fluorescence microscopy holds tremendous potential for discovery in neuroscience. Much of the molecular machinery and anatomic specializations that give rise to the unique and bewildering electrochemical activity of neurons are nanoscale by design, ranging somewhere between 1 nm and 1 μm. It is at this scale where most of the unknown and exciting action is and where cell biologists flock to in their dreams, but it was off limits for light microscopy until recently.