Techniques

We integrate the state-of-the-art biophotonics techniques for non-invasive fluorescence studies of biological and biomolecular systems. Our multimodal fluorescence microscopy and spectroscopy techniques enable us to gain a multi-dimensional perspective of molecular mechanisms that underlie a given biological process. We use a variation of the following techniques in our laboratory for “ensemble” and “single-molecule” studies:

• Two-Photon Fluorescence Microscopy (2PFM)
• Two-Photon Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Microscopy (2P-FLIM)
• Fluorescence Polarization Micro-spectroscopy (FPMS)
• Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy (FCS)
• Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET)
• Laser Scanning Confocal Fluorescence Microscopy (LSCFM)
• Differential Interference Contrast (DIC) Microscopy
• Ultrafast Laser Spectroscopy
• Spectrophotometery and Spectrofluorimtery
• Cell and Tissue Culture
• Image Processing and Data Analysis Algorithm

In addition, there are other shared, scientific facilities here at Penn State University that are at our disposal as well and include:

• Center for Computational Biology
• Center for Quantitative Cell Analysis
• Electron Microscope Facility
• Hybridoma and Cell Culture Laboratory
• Nucleic Acid Facility
• Intercollegiate Mass Spectrometry Center
• DNA Microarray Facility
• Nanofabrication Facility
• NSF-National Nanofab facilities