Organic fluorophores, such as the cyanine dyes, are widely used in single-molecule and super-resolution microscopy for imaging of biological systems. However, photobleaching in addition to stochastic blinking reduces the number of photons emitted from these fluorophores. We showed that the popular red emitting fluorophore Cy5 and other cyanine dyes exhibits greatly enhanced photostability when covalently linked to stabilizers that quench triplet states, such as cyclooctatetraene (COT), nitrobenzyl, or Trolox. We showed by laser flash photolysis that the triplet state lifetime of Cy5 is significantly reduced from ~100 µs for unmodified Cy5 to less than 0.2 µs for Cy5 with covalently linked triplet state quencher COT. Substituents on the COT triplet quencher reduce further the fluorophore triplet lifetime and increase photostability.

REGISTER HERE

The seminar will be held on April 28, at 13:30, at the University of Algarve | Gambelas Campus | Complexo Pedagógico | Anfiteatro B.

Participation is free but mandatory to register.

About our speaker:
1993 PhD at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (Germany);

1994-2021 Columbia University (USA);

2021 Bowling Green State University (USA)

This seminar was kindly sponsored by