Journal of Innovative Optical Health Sciences, Volume. 12, Issue 5, 1930003(2019)

Fast fluorescence lifetime imaging techniques: A review on challenge and development

Xiongbo Liu1... Danying Lin1,*, Wolfgang Becker2, Jingjing Niu1, Bin Yu1, Liwei Liu1 and Junle Qu1 |Show fewer author(s)
Author Affiliations
  • 1Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Devices and Systems of Ministry of Education and Guangdong Province, College of Physics and Optoelectronic Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, P. R. China
  • 2Becker & Hickl GmbH, Nunsdorfer Ring 7-9, Berlin 12277, Germany
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    Fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) is increasingly used in biomedicine, material science, chemistry, and other related research fields, because of its advantages of high specificity and sensitivity in monitoring cellular microenvironments, studying interaction between proteins, metabolic state, screening drugs and analyzing their e±cacy, characterizing novel materials, and diagnosing early cancers. Understandably, there is a large interest in obtaining FLIM data within an acquisition time as short as possible. Consequently, there is currently a technology that advances towards faster and faster FLIM recording. However, the maximum speed of a recording technique is only part of the problem. The acquisition time of a FLIM image is a complex function of many factors. These include the photon rate that can be obtained from the sample, the amount of information a technique extracts from the decay functions, the e±ciency at which it determines fluorescence decay parameters from the recorded photons, the demands for the accuracy of these parameters, the number of pixels, and the lateral and axial resolutions that are obtained in biological materials. Starting from a discussion of the parameters which determine the acquisition time, this review will describe existing and emerging FLIM techniques and data analysis algorithms, and analyze their performance and recording speed in biological and biomedical applications.

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    Xiongbo Liu, Danying Lin, Wolfgang Becker, Jingjing Niu, Bin Yu, Liwei Liu, Junle Qu. Fast fluorescence lifetime imaging techniques: A review on challenge and development[J]. Journal of Innovative Optical Health Sciences, 2019, 12(5): 1930003

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    Paper Information

    Received: Mar. 14, 2019

    Accepted: Jun. 8, 2019

    Published Online: Oct. 22, 2019

    The Author Email: Lin Danying (dylin@szu.edu.cn)

    DOI:10.1142/s1793545819300039

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