University cardiology researchers employ total internal reflection fluorescence system to further their research
Trevor Powell and his collaborators at the University Laboratory of Physiology, Oxford, have chosen Nikon's new TIRF (total internal reflection fluorescence) system to further their heart research.
The recently finalised purchase provides the University Physiology Laboratory with an important tool for its MRC and British Heart Foundation-funded research, which aims to identify important signalling events following the interaction of drugs with heart muscle cells, and during the responses of these myocytes following electrical excitation.
The TIRF technique offers many advantages for analysing the cellular signalling cascades triggered by drug binding, those both within the cellular plasma membrane and closely apposed to it.
Progress has been greatly aided by the increasing availability of optical probes targeting molecules involved in these processes, especially GFP engineered proteins like GFP-PKC and GFP-PKA. "TIRF's strength is the real-time tracking of membrane associated events", says professor Powell.
"I consider TIRF microscopy complementary to, rather than competitive with confocal microscopy, which provides snapshots of internal 'slices' of cell.
The two systems partner each other perfectly in obtaining a good view of cellular events as a whole." Powell continues, "As I am involved in both research and teaching, it is important for me to equip the laboratory with high-quality, intuitive yet simple-to-use equipment that experts and non-experts alike can use routinely. Nikon have satisfied these criteria and created a safe, real-time TIRF system." Robert Forster, general manager of Nikon Instruments comments, "TIRF is an exceptionally important technique that significantly extends the capabilities of light microscopy.
We are delighted that professor Powell and his team have chosen the Nikon system." Nikon's TIRF system exploits evanescent wave illumination to excite a fluorophore in an exceptionally thin section of the specimen - typically less than 100nm.
TIRF enables the study of dynamic membrane associated events in living cells, the uptake and release of molecules between the membrane and extracellular fluid, the movement of cell organelles, and the study of biological or chemical events at solid/liquid boundaries.
Reduced fluorophore excitation beyond the evanescent wave maximises the signal-to-noise ratio for high-contrast, real-time observations of labelled molecules.
