4D Imaging and Tracking to Resolve Organelle Form vs Function

This project will develop the first multimodal imaging platform for four-dimensional (4D) subcellular imaging that combines organelle tracking with functional molecular readouts. Intracellular organelles, such as mitochondria, are critical for cellular function in health and disease; however, we know very little about how organelle shape and movement relate to function and macroscopic phenotypes such as disease development and progression. The missing link in the field is an imaging technology that can simultaneously probe 4D organelle dynamics in combination with a functional metabolic readout at high spatial and temporal resolutions. The team will approach this goal by combining adaptive optics lattice light-sheet microscopy (AO-LLSM)-based quantitative 4D organelle tracking with 2-photon metabolite fluorescence lifetime-based functional readouts.