Colorado State University

The research team of Randy Bartels and Stuart Tobet at Colorado State University proposes to develop and build a new imaging technology that will allow a direct view of the complex world of molecular communication within and between cells. Achieving the project’s goal requires a new approach to forming images of the spatio-temporal concentration of biomolecules and increases the sensitivity of unlabeled molecular detection in optical microscopy by up to six orders of magnitude. They propose to observe changes in molecule concentrations at up to picomolar levels. This sensitivity will use a new approach to capturing vibrational Raman spectral information using properties of ultrafast laser pulses interacting with coherent quantum Raman-active molecular vibrations. Images formed from this ultra sensitive Doppler shifted Raman detection will be combined with multimodal nonlinear microscope images to simultaneously capture morphology, cell translation and molecular signaling. A new view of molecular signaling leading to changes in cell mobility and cell differentiation may be revealed by this new technology.