Fluorescence lifetime imaging with a multifocal two photon microscope

Abstract : Two-photon microscopy is a powerful tool for imaging of cells or tissues. However, it presents the drawback of being a laser-scanning technique that involves a long acquisition time for f luorescence-lifetime imaging. Thus it is commonly limited to intensity images that give only indications of the location of f luorophores but do not identify the physicochemical properties and interactions between cells' components. To protect biological samples from experiments that are too long and to provide a more comprehensive spectroscopic tool we have developed a time-resolved multifocal multiphoton microscope. This setup allows us to speed up the acquisition while retaining the possibility of measuring both intensity and lifetime images of the sample