Deep-UV microscopy as a tool to capture intracellular dynamics

Abstract

Intracellular activity occurs at a wide range of time scales, requiring a multiscale approach for data acquisition and analysis. Current optical techniques used for imaging intracellular dynamics suffer from limited imaging speeds, low biomolecular specificity, or require fluorescent labels which can perturb cellular environments. Deep-ultraviolet (UV) microscopy enables fast, label-free, and quantitative molecular imaging with subcellular resolution. Previously, multispectral deep-UV microscopy has been demonstrated for robust hematology analysis and prostate tissue characterization. In this work, we present deep-UV microscopy as a tool to capture multiscale intracellular dynamics. We discuss our microscope setup and analytical framework using phasor analysis. We show that deep-UV microscopy can characterize multiscale intracellular dynamics in prostate cancer cells and reveals unique activity in cell lines of varying malignancy.