Blinking Fluorophores by Design

美国国家科学基金会化学部的化学结构、动力学和机制项目支持迈阿密大学的弗朗西斯科·雷莫教授合成和表征一类基于[1，3]恶嗪骨架的新型可切换有机荧光团。 本工作的目标是在单分子荧光成像的基础上，利用荧光团对生物样品进行纳米级分辨率的可视化。分子将被设计成在荧光和非发射状态之间连续地相互转换，在单分子水平上闪烁，从而允许在相同的子衍射体积内的时间分辨率。这项工作提供了用商业荧光显微镜和传统光学器件记录生物制剂超分辨率图像的能力，更广泛的影响包括对亚衍射显微镜的潜在影响，以及这些技术在纳米尺度上对生物基质成像的扩展。 Raymo实验室将利用来自当地迈阿密大都市地区未被代表的群体的大量学生。

The Chemical Structure, Dynamics and Mechanisms Program in the Chemistry Division at the National Science Foundation supports Professor Francisco Raymo of the University of Miami, for the synthesis and characterization of a novel class of switchable organic fluorophores based on the [1,3]oxazine skeleton. The goal of this work is to use the fluorophores for the visualization of biological samples with nanoscale resolution on the basis of single-molecule fluorescence imaging. The molecules will be designed to interconvert continuously between fluorescent and nonemissive states, blinking at the single-molecule level allowing temporal resolution within the same subdiffraction volume. The work provides the ability to record super-resolution images of biological preparations with commercial fluorescence microscopes and conventional optics.Broader impacts of the research include the potential impact on subdiffraction microscopy and extension of these techniques to image biological substrates on the nanometer scale. The Raymo laboratory will take advantage of the large pool of students available from underepresented groups from the local Miami metropolitan area.