C. Arnaud
Sep 2, 2019
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C&EN Global Enterprise
Abstract
Scientists using superresolution microscopy methods on cells usually get only structural information, like the sizes and shapes of cellular compartments. By using a new derivative of a conventional dye, researchers can get specific nanoscale data about the chemical environment of cell plasma membranes. Such information could tell scientists about the order and disorder of the cell membranes, including about highly ordered “lipid rafts.” Ke Xu, a superresolution microscopy expert at the University of California, Berkeley, collaborated with Andrey S. Klymchenko of the University of Strasbourg to optimize derivatives of the lipid-targeting dye Nile red for superresolution microscopy. They reported the probes earlier this month (Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2019, 10.1002/anie.201907690). Xu presented the work last week at the American Chemical Society national meeting in San Diego. Nile red doesn’t fluoresce in aqueous environments, so in cells, it fluoresces only when it associates with lipids. In addition, it is ...