J. Med. Chem. 2023, 66, 4, 2542–2549

Santa Barbara, California – Photothermal Spectroscopy Corp. announces the first scientific publication highlight advances in neuroscience with its new technology of Fluorescence guided Optical Photothermal Infrared (FL-OPTIR) spectroscopy on the mIRage^®-LS platform. The publication was highlighted on the front cover of the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, a journal of ACS publications in the February 23, 2023 issue.

The publication titled “Fluorescently guided optical photothermal infrared microspectroscopy for protein-specific bioimaging at subcellular level” authored by Dr. Oxana Klementieva, Associate Professor, Molecular Imaging, Lund University, Sweden and her colleagues in combination with Dr. Craig Prater CTO, Photothermal Spectroscopy Corp and Dr. Yeran Bai, post-doctoral researcher, University California, Santa Barbara.

The publication demonstrated significant methodological advances that allow for the studies of vulnerable parts of neurons being attacked by amyloids. This will lead to a better understanding of amyloid protein aggregation in complex systems such as tissues as well as living cell studies.

“I am very excited about new possibilities that can now be achieved with fluorescence guided OPTIR on the mIRage^®-LS for biomedical research. The new instrument offers a dream setup for microspectroscopic experiments.” stated Dr. Klementieva, “I strongly believe that fluorescence guided OPTIR on the mIRage^®-LS can be useful for many research groups addressing protein misfolding involved in Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, brain trauma, and COVID related lung structural changes of collagen and many more applications”.
Dr. Craig Prater commented “Fluorescence-guided photothermal infrared spectroscopy on the mIRage^®-LS platform allows researchers to fluorescently label targeted molecules in cells and tissue and then perform infrared spectroscopic analysis on both labeled and unlabeled regions of the sample. In our recent publication, we used fluorescent labels to tag amyloids in brain tissue and then used FL-OPTIR to measure difference in beta sheet formation between normal and diseased tissue. The FL-OPTIR approach can be used to chemically analyze specifically targeted molecular structures in complex samples such as biological tissue at the subcellular level.”

The link to the publication can be found here:
Fluorescently guided optical photothermal infrared microspectroscopy for protein-specific bioimaging at subcellular level, “Journal of Medicinal Chemistry” (acs.org)

J. Med. Chem. 2023, 66, 4, 2542–2549
Publication Date: January 4, 2023
https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jmedchem.2c01359
Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society

Further information about Dr Oxana Klementieva can be found here:
Oxana Klementieva — Lund University

About Photothermal Spectroscopy Corp

Photothermal Spectroscopy Corp (PSC), the sub-micron spectroscopy company, has pioneered the breakthrough technique of optical Photothermal Infrared (O-PTIR) technology that eliminates key limitations of traditional IR Spectroscopy providing submicron spatial resolution for IR and transmission-like FTIR quality spectra in non-contact reflection mode. More recently, PSC has developed the world’s first simultaneous Infrared and Raman microscope and imaging system, providing IR and Raman data from the exact same spot, at the same time, with the same submicron spatial resolution. PSC’s vision is to enable the power of IR spectroscopy to be applied to high value problems in industry and academia via the adoption of O-PTIR.

About mIRage^®-LS

The mIRage-LS IR multimodal microscope integrates the combined technologies of Raman and Fluorescence microscopy with sub-micron IR spatial resolution imaging and spectroscopy using Optical Photothermal IR (O-PTIR) spectroscopy. These combined techniques will enable life science researchers to easily identify bio-molecular structures of interest and characterize their chemical structure with submicron IR.

Fluorescence microscopy, with its powerful molecular specificity has been a life science research workhorse technique for decades. Vibrational spectroscopy (IR & Raman) are well established techniques, providing broad macromolecular, spatially resolved characterization abilities for life science-based applications.

With the recent advent of O-PTIR, with its submicron and simultaneous Raman capabilities, this broad macromolecular characterization can now be performed on biologically relevant spatial scales, <500 nm, allowing uniquely for IR spectroscopy, sub-cellular resolution, which is matched with Raman and fluorescence imaging resolution.

Now, for the first time, a fully integrated and sample registration free combination of these techniques into a single platform heralds a breakthrough for life science research, allowing researchers to truly exploit these two techniques with powerful synergy, to access additional information and insights not available with either technique on its own.

Media Contact: Dean Dawson, V.P. Marketing and Business Development Photothermal Spectroscopy Corp T: +1 (805) 845-6568 x525 photothermal.ndic.com