An automated high-content screening microscope has been developed which uses fluorescence anisotropy imaging and fluorescence lifetime microscopy to identify Förster resonant energy transfer between eGFP and mRPF1 in drug screening assays. A wide-field polarization resolved imager is used to simultaneously capture the parallel and perpendicular components of both eGFP and mRFP1 fluorescence emission to provide a high-speed measurement of acceptor depolarization. Donor excited state lifetime measurements performed using laser scanning microscopy is then used to determine the FRET efficiency in a particular assay. A proof-of-principle assay is performed using mutant Jurkat human T-cells to illustrate the process by which FRET is first identified and then quantified by our high-content screening system.

Date Published: 5 March 2008
PDF: 12 pages
Proc. SPIE 6859, Imaging, Manipulation, and Analysis of Biomolecules, Cells, and Tissues VI, 685919 (5 March 2008); doi: 10.1117/12.763310

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 6859:
Imaging, Manipulation, and Analysis of Biomolecules, Cells, and Tissues VI
Daniel L. Farkas; Dan V. Nicolau; Robert C. Leif, Editor(s)