Supported lipid bilayers are used to mimic the structure and properties of natural cell membranes and serve as a vluable model for studying various biophysical processes.
These flat membranes spread on the surface, such as a coverslip for imaging purposes, are used to study the physical and chemical properties of lipids organized in membranes, protein-lipid interactions, and the development of drugs and biosensors, among other applications.
Classical imaging of supported lipid bilayers has a few limitations. Firstly, their two-dimensional nature poses difficulties in finding a good focus using light microscopy. Moreover, interactions that occur between biomolecules require multichannel acquisition at nanometer resolution. Lipid-interacting proteins passed through the sample may also generate background noise that distorts the final image. Finally, optical microscopy provides a small field of view, limiting the imaging area to tens of micrometers.
Super-resolution TIRF imaging provides details of lipid bilayer morphology at the nanoscale.
ASTER technology allows imaging of large surfaces (150 x 150 um) with homogeneous illumination of a sample and within only one acquisition. Automatic TIRF calibration makes TIRF imaging quick and easily accessible. Proteins and lipids marked fluorescently can be detected simultaneously. Abbelight’s dual-camera system integrated into SAFe MN360 allows imaging of four colors at the same time. This feature provides information on protein-lipid and protein-protein interaction dynamics. Moreover, these interactions can be tracked and analyzed with Abbelight’s Neo Software using the Single Particle Tracking option included in the software.
