FIP Special Postdoc Virtual Seminar: Real-time 3D single-particle and single-molecule tracking microscope

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Wed, 05/06/2020 - 12:00 to 13:00

Dr. Shangguo Hou

Presenter

Dr. Shangguo Hou, Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Chemistry, Duke University

Real-time 3D single-particle tracking has emerged as a powerful tool for investigating dynamic biological interactions and single-molecule tracking has the potential to revolutionize the study of biological systems due to their high spatial and temporal resolution and high sensitivity. Here I will discuss several 3D tracking methods developed by our lab. (i) 3D Dynamic Photon Localization Tracking (3D-DyPLoT). 3D-DyPLoT dynamically scans a focused laser spot in 3D with a tunable acoustic gradient lens and a 2D electro-optic deflector and has demonstrated real-time tracking at high diffusive speeds (up to 20 µm2/s) and low photon count rates 10 kHz. (ii) 3D Precision Adaptive Real-time Tracking (3D-PART). 3D-PART can trade tracking speed for precision on demand in real time and capture the heterogeneous dynamics. (iii) 3D Single-Molecule Active Real-time Tracking (3D-SMART). 3D-SMART can continuously track single fluorescent dye molecules for several minutes at a time, two orders of magnitudes longer than previously reported methods. We demonstrated the application of this new single-molecule tracking microscopy to track the free, 3D diffusion of DNA, RNA and proteins in solution. 3D-SMART was also applied to observing the DNA transcription events in solution. This real-time 3D single molecule tracking method promises to be a powerful tool for capturing the dynamics of single biomolecules at high speeds and over 3D distances.
 
Shangguo Hou is a fifth-year postdoctoral researcher working in the group of Prof. Kevin Welsher. His research focus on developing the high spatio-temporal resolution real-time 3D tracking methods and applying them to the biological study. Shangguo obtained his Ph.D. from Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Science in 2015 with the award of Graduation with honor: Graduate Excellence Award of Shanghai.