title: Lasing in Live Mitotic and Non-Phagocytic Cells by Efficient Delivery of Microresonators.
abstract: Reliable methods to individually track large numbers of cells in real time are urgently needed to advance our understanding of important biological processes like cancer metastasis, neuronal network development and wound healing. It has recently been suggested to introduce microscopic whispering gallery mode lasers into the cytoplasm of cells and to use their characteristic, size-dependent emission spectrum as optical barcode but so far there is no evidence that this approach is generally applicable. Here, we describe a method that drastically improves intracellular delivery of resonators for several cell types, including mitotic and non-phagocytic cells. In addition, we characterize the influence of resonator size on the spectral characteristics of the emitted laser light and identify an optimum size range that facilitates tagging and tracking of thousands of cells simultaneously. Finally, we observe that the microresonators remain internalized by cells during cell division, which enables tagging several generations of cells.
authors.affiliation: SUPA, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews, St Andrews KY16 9SS, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Marcel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schubert
authors.affiliation: SUPA, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews, St Andrews KY16 9SS, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Klara
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Volckaert
authors.affiliation: SUPA, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews, St Andrews KY16 9SS, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Karl
authors.affiliation: SUPA, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews, St Andrews KY16 9SS, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Morton
authors.affiliation: SUPA, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews, St Andrews KY16 9SS, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Philipp
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Liehm
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St Andrews KY16 9SS, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Gareth B
authors.initials: GB
authors.lastname: Miles
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, University of St Andrews, St Andrews KY16 9SS, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Simon J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Powis
authors.affiliation: SUPA, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews, St Andrews KY16 9SS, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Malte C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Gather
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001710:Biotin / Q000737:chemistry; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D057809:HEK293 Cells; D006801:Humans; D007834:Lasers; D008055:Lipids / Q000737:chemistry; D008264:Macrophages / Q000166:cytology / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism; D051379:Mice; D008863:Microspheres; D008938:Mitosis / Q000528:radiation effects; D041681:NIH 3T3 Cells; D010587:Phagocytosis / Q000528:radiation effects; D011137:Polystyrenes / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D008055:Lipids; C086724:Lipofectamine; D011137:Polystyrenes; D001710:Biotin