PRECISION OPTICAL INTRACELLULAR NEAR FIELD IMAGING/SPECTROSCOPY TECHNOLOGY

摘要

A Precision Optical Intracellular Near Field Imaging/Spectroscopy Technology (POINT) is a high-resolution nanosensor array instrument for imaging, analyzing and comparing molecular characteristics of inner regions of living cells without destroying their natural environment. Near-field intra-cellular apertureless tomographic imaging uses sub- wavelength nano-particles in a cell which generates tomographic projections. A detector detects and collects high-frequency details from evanescent field interactions of the nano-particle with surrounding molecules and provides near- field imagery of a cell volume. A detector ring or a discrete detector is movably disposed near the cell. Sub-wavelength size fluorescent particles, which may be metallic spheres, attach to specific gene sites or to a magnetic bead that is maneuvered around a cell volume to produce evanescent fields when illuminated in the far-field from light outside the cell volume. Light scattering from the sub-wavelength particles produces near- field interactions with surrounding molecules. Near-field light is modulated with an oscillating magnetic field. A computer-controlled DC magnetic field scans the particles around within the cell. The Near-Field Intracellular Apertureless Microscope (NICAM) technique enables non¬ destructive sub -wavelength resolution imaging without inserting a near-field (illumination or collection mode) probe into a cell.