Nontechnical explanation of the project's broader significance.
An outstanding feature of multiphoton microscopy is its ability to simultaneously map chemical and structural information on the submicron length scale. The Brandeis multiphoton microscope is being used to elucidate the mechanisms of protein crystallization, to control protein aggregation for pharmaceutical applications and to develop novel condensed phases of proteins for drug delivery, all problems of significant scientific and industrial importance. Students rotate through the microscopy facility where they are trained on this state-of-the-art equipment. More broadly, this instrument has become part of the NSF Materials Research Facilities Network and therefore is available to materials science researchers nationally.
. This multiphoton microscope provides high resolution optical images using multiple contrast methods; second harmonic generation, 2- and 3-photon excitation fluorescence microscopy, fluorescence lifetime imaging, Förster resonance energy transfer and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy. The high power laser is also being used to affect the sample, for example, to induce protein crystal nucleation, to perform laser ablation of microtubules and muscles and to perform 3D printing. Studies underway at Brandeis include (1) protein crystal nucleation, (2) active matter structure, (3) membrane organization, (4) spliceosome assembly and (5) filament assembly in vivo. No other single instrument has the capability to perform this ensemble of measurements, combined with the ability to probe and measure the response on submicron length-scales.
