The importance of fluorescence lifetime measurement as an optical analysis tool is growing. Many applications already exist in order to determine the fluorescence lifetime, but the majority of these require the addition of fluorescence-active substances to enable measurements. Every usage of such foreign materials has an associated risk. This paper investigates the use of auto-fluorescing substances in Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Baker’s yeast) as a risk free alternative to fluorescence-active substance enabled measurements. The experimental setup uses a nitrogen laser with a pulse length of 350 ps and a wavelength of 337 nm. The excited sample emits light due to fluorescence of NADH/NADPH and collagen. A fast photodiode collects the light at the output of an appropriate high-pass edge-filter at 400 nm. Fluorescence lifetimes can be determined from the decay of the measurement signals, which in turn characterizes the individual materials and their surrounding environment. Information about the quantity of the fluorescence active substances can also be measured based on the received signal intensity. The correlation between the fluorescence lifetime and the metabolic state of Saccharomyces cerevisiae was investigated and is presented here.

Date Published: 2 March 2015
PDF: 6 pages
Proc. SPIE 9328, Imaging, Manipulation, and Analysis of Biomolecules, Cells, and Tissues XIII, 93281Q (2 March 2015); doi: 10.1117/12.2078282

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9328:
Imaging, Manipulation, and Analysis of Biomolecules, Cells, and Tissues XIII
Daniel L. Farkas; Dan V. Nicolau; Robert C. Leif, Editor(s)