Three-Dimensional Spot Detection in Ratiometric Fluorescence Imaging For Measurement of Subcellular Organelles.

Lysosomes are subcellular organelles playing a vital role in the endocytosis process of the cell. Lysosomal acidity is an important factor in assuring proper functioning of the enzymes within the organelle, and can be assessed by labeling the lysosomes with pH-sensitive fluorescence probes. To enhance our understanding of the acidification mechanisms, the goal of this work is to develop a method that can accurately detect and characterize the acidity of each lysosome captured in ratiometric fluorescence images.

Catanionic surfactant vesicles for electrostatic molecular sequestration and separation.

Mixtures of oppositely charged surfactants, commonly called catanionic mixtures, are one of the most interesting and promising areas of colloidal chemistry. In this paper we review our previous work and report new results on electrostatic adsorption of organic solutes and DNA to the exterior surfaces of catanionic, unilamellar vesicles which form spontaneously in mixtures of sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate (SDBS) and cetyltrimethylammonium tosylate (CTAT). Our group, along with others, has shown that organic ions and polyelectrolytes will bind to the exterior surface of oppositely charged catanionic vesicles through interactions with unpaired ionic surfactants present in the vesicle bilayer.