Advanced Microscopy and Live Cell Imaging

Advanced live cell microscopy provides access to obtain information about single cells and even single molecules within cells as a function of time, which cannot be obtained from population averages. The advantages and disadvantages of various microscope techniques and reagents will be discussed with special focus on protein-protein interactions and dynamics. The key methods that will be introduced are fluorescence redistribution after photobleaching (FRAP), bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC), fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET), and fluorescence life-time imaging.