Single-Cell Biophysics: Measurement, Modulation, and Modeling

Single-Cell Biophysics: Measurement, Modulation, and Modeling

Saturday Speaker Abstracts

The Multi-resolution Imaging Approach to Nano-Bio Interactions at the Single-Cell Level

Haw Yang

Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA.

Nano materials hold great promise for fundamental biological research as well as biomedical

applications. Mechanistic understandings for the nano materials actions, however, is often

challenging due to the inhomogeneity in the nano materials themselves, and also to the

complexity of biological media such as serum or live cells. Studying nano-bio interactions in real

time at the single-particle level, in principle, should alleviate some of the difficulties and could

bring about new insights that are unavailable otherwise. In this report, we will discuss some new

tools that are being developed, e.g., 3D multi-resolution imaging, and their implications in future

applications. Specifically, 3D multi-resolution imaging is achieved by combining real-time 3D

single-particle tracking and 2-photon confocal microscopy to achieve 10 nm localization

precision in all XYZ directions and 10 microsecond time resolution in the context of the

sectioning confocal microscopy. This new approach has afforded the visualization of a single

virus-like particle moving through the 3D space, finding a live call, landing on the cell, and

eventually leaving the cell surface. Moreover, it enables tracing out cellular anatomy in 3D

fidelity with a resolution commensurate with that of 2D electron microscopy, which can only

operate on microtomed, fixed cells. We will also discuss some of the new developments

following intra-cellular dynamics and trafficking.