Silicon photon-counting avalanche diodes for single-molecule fluorescence spectroscopy.

Solution-based single-molecule fluorescence spectroscopy is a powerful experimental tool with applications in cell biology, biochemistry and biophysics. The basic feature of this technique is to excite and collect light from a very small volume and work in a low concentration regime resulting in rare burst-like events corresponding to the transit of a single molecule. Detecting photon bursts is a challenging task: the small number of emitted photons in each burst calls for high detector sensitivity. Bursts are very brief, requiring detectors with fast response time and capable of sustaining high count rates. Finally, many bursts need to be accumulated to achieve proper statistical accuracy, resulting in long measurement time unless parallelization strategies are implemented to speed up data acquisition. In this paper we will show that silicon single-photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) best meet the needs of single-molecule detection. We will review the key SPAD parameters and highlight the issues to be addressed in their design, fabrication and operation. After surveying the state-of-the-art SPAD technologies, we will describe our recent progress towards increasing the throughput of single-molecule fluorescence spectroscopy in solution using parallel arrays of SPADs. The potential of this approach is illustrated with single-molecule Förster resonance energy transfer measurements.

A novel fluorescence lifetime imaging system that optimizes photon efficiency.

Fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) is a powerful microscopy technique for providing contrast of biological and other systems by differences in molecular species or their environments. However, the cost of equipment and the complexity of data analysis have limited the application of FLIM. We present a mathematical model and physical implementation for a low cost digital frequency domain FLIM (DFD-FLIM) system, which can provide lifetime resolution with quality comparable to time-correlated single photon counting methods. Our implementation provides data natively in the form of phasors. On the basis of the mathematical model, we present an error analysis that shows the precise parameters for maximizing the quality of lifetime acquisition, as well as data to support this conclusion. The hardware and software of the proposed DFD-FLIM method simplifies the process of data acquisition for FLIM, presents a new interface for data display and interpretation, and optimizes the accuracy of lifetime determination.

Toward single-molecule optical mapping of the epigenome.

The past decade has seen an explosive growth in the utilization of single-molecule techniques for the study of complex systems. The ability to resolve phenomena otherwise masked by ensemble averaging has made these approaches especially attractive for the study of biological systems, where stochastic events lead to inherent inhomogeneity at the population level. The complex composition of the genome has made it an ideal system to study at the single-molecule level, and methods aimed at resolving genetic information from long, individual, genomic DNA molecules have been in use for the last 30 years. These methods, and particularly optical-based mapping of DNA, have been instrumental in highlighting genomic variation and contributed significantly to the assembly of many genomes including the human genome. Nanotechnology and nanoscopy have been a strong driving force for advancing genomic mapping approaches, allowing both better manipulation of DNA on the nanoscale and enhanced optical resolving power for analysis of genomic information. During the past few years, these developments have been adopted also for epigenetic studies. The common principle for these studies is the use of advanced optical microscopy for the detection of fluorescently labeled epigenetic marks on long, extended DNA molecules. Here we will discuss recent single-molecule studies for the mapping of chromatin composition and epigenetic DNA modifications, such as DNA methylation.

Phasor imaging with a widefield photon-counting detector.

Fluorescence lifetime can be used as a contrast mechanism to distinguish fluorophores for localization or tracking, for studying molecular interactions, binding, assembly, and aggregation, or for observing conformational changes via Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) between donor and acceptor molecules. Fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) is thus a powerful technique but its widespread use has been hampered by demanding hardware and software requirements. FLIM data is often analyzed in terms of multicomponent fluorescence lifetime decays, which requires large signals for a good signal-to-noise ratio. This confines the approach to very low frame rates and limits the number of frames which can be acquired before bleaching the sample. Recently, a computationally efficient and intuitive graphical representation, the phasor approach, has been proposed as an alternative method for FLIM data analysis at the ensemble and single-molecule level. In this article, we illustrate the advantages of combining phasor analysis with a widefield time-resolved single photon-counting detector (the H33D detector) for FLIM applications. In particular we show that phasor analysis allows real-time subsecond identification of species by their lifetimes and rapid representation of their spatial distribution, thanks to the parallel acquisition of FLIM information over a wide field of view by the H33D detector. We also discuss possible improvements of the H33D detector's performance made possible by the simplicity of phasor analysis and its relaxed timing accuracy requirements compared to standard time-correlated single-photon counting (TCSPC) methods.

Ultra high-throughput single molecule spectroscopy with a 1024 pixel SPAD.

Single-molecule spectroscopy is a powerful approach to measuring molecular properties such as size, brightness, conformation, and binding constants. Due to the low concentrations in the single-molecule regime, measurements with good statistical accuracy require long acquisition times. Previously we showed a factor of 8 improvement in acquisition speed using a custom-CMOS 8x1 SPAD array. Here we present preliminary results with a 64X improvement in throughput obtained using a liquid crystal on silicon spatial light modulator (LCOS-SLM) and a novel standard CMOS 1024 pixel SPAD array, opening the way to truly high-throughput single-molecule spectroscopy.

High-throughput FCS using an LCOS spatial light modulator and an 8 × 1 SPAD array.

We present a novel approach to high-throughput Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy (FCS) which enables us to obtain one order of magnitude improvement in acquisition time. Our approach utilizes a liquid crystal on silicon spatial light modulator to generate dynamically adjustable focal spots, and uses an eight-pixel monolithic single-photon avalanche photodiode array. We demonstrate the capabilities of this system by showing FCS of Rhodamine 6G under various viscosities, and by showing that, with proper calibration of each detection channel, one order of magnitude improvement in acquisition speed is obtained. More generally, our approach will allow higher throughput single-molecule studies to be performed.

High-throughput multispot single-molecule spectroscopy.

Solution-based single-molecule spectroscopy and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) are powerful techniques to access a variety of molecular properties such as size, brightness, conformation, and binding constants. However, this is limited to low concentrations, which results in long acquisition times in order to achieve good statistical accuracy. Data can be acquired more quickly by using parallelization. We present a new approach using a multispot excitation and detection geometry made possible by the combination of three powerful new technologies: (i) a liquid crystal spatial light modulator to produce multiple diffraction-limited excitation spots; (ii) a multipixel detector array matching the excitation pattern and (iii) a low-cost reconfigurable multichannel counting board. We demonstrate the capabilities of this technique by reporting FCS measurements of various calibrated samples as well as single-molecule burst measurements.