Applications
FLIM has primarily been used in biology as a method to detect photosensitizers in cells and tumors as well as FRET in instances where ratiometric imaging is difficult. The technique was developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s (Bugiel et al. 1989. König 1989, before being more widely applied in the late 1990s. In cell culture, it has been used to study EGF receptor signaling and ErbB1 receptor trafficking. FLIM imaging is particularly useful in neurons, where light scattering by brain tissue is problematic for ratiometric imaging. In neurons, FLIM imaging using pulsed illumination has been used to study Ras, CaMKII, Rac, and Ran family proteins. FLIM has been used in clinical multiphoton tomography to detect intradermal cancer cells as well as pharmaceutical and cosmetical compounds.
Read more about this topic: Fluorescence-lifetime Imaging Microscopy