CAREER: Increasing the power of single-molecule bio-imaging with plasmon-enhanced fluorescence

在化学系化学测量和成像项目的支持下，密歇根大学的Julie Biteen教授和她的团队正在改进显微镜的能力，以便在1-2纳米尺度的蛋白质本身观察活细胞内部。该项目基于单分子荧光显微镜和金属纳米粒子等离子体学的耦合，以产生一种非微扰的方法，用于观察蛋白质在自然细胞环境中的位置和动力学，具有前所未有的分辨率和灵活性。跨学科的方法旨在（1）了解等离子体增强单分子荧光的机制，（2）基于这种见解来表征等离子体表面，（3）定位和跟踪与金属纳米颗粒偶联的活细菌细胞中的膜蛋白，以及（4）通过演示，指导，教学和实验室研究使学生接触现代科学，特别是增加妇女在STEM领域的参与。拟议的研究有望实现非侵入性的纳米级显微镜，其应用范围从活细胞成像到原位器件表征。从等离子体增强的单分子荧光中获得的纳米级细节的机械理解将对细胞生物学，氢储存，化学分离和能源生产产生巨大的影响。

With support from the Chemical Measurement and Imaging Program in the Division of Chemistry, Professor Julie Biteen and her group at the University of Michigan are improving the power of microscopes in order to look inside live cells at the 1-2 nanometer scale of proteins themselves. This project is based on coupling single-molecule fluorescence microscopy and metal nanoparticle plasmonics to produce a non-perturbative method for looking at protein position and dynamics in the natural cellular environment with unprecedented resolution and flexibility.The interdisciplinary approach aims (1) to understand the mechanism of plasmon-enhanced single-molecule fluorescence, (2) to characterize plasmonic surfaces based on this insight, (3) to localize and track membrane proteins in live bacteria cells coupled to metal nanoparticles, and (4) to expose students to modern science through demos, mentoring, teaching and laboratory research, with a particular eye toward increasing the participation of women in STEM fields. The proposed research promises to enable non-invasive, nanometer-scale microscopy with applications ranging from live-cell imaging to in situ device characterization. The mechanistic understanding of nanoscopic details derived from plasmon-enhanced single-molecule fluorescence will have enormous implications for cell biology, hydrogen storage, chemical separation and energy production.