Multifunctional Laser Imaging of Cancer Cell Secretion with Hybrid Liquid Crystal Resonators

Abstract

Laser emission imaging is an emerging technology, which offers immense potential for revealing biological behavior with enhanced light‐matter interactions and signal contrast. State‐of‐the‐art lasers mostly provide physical information of cells, without being able to perform various biochemical functions or biological information of cell. Here this need is addressed by introducing hybrid liquid crystal microlaser resonators, an approach for label‐free laser emission imaging of secreted molecules associated with various types of cell–environment interaction. Liquid crystal microdroplets are designed as signal amplifiers to report subtle molecular events sandwiched in a Fabry–Pérot microcavity. Through the integration with a galvometer scanner, dynamic information of cell physiological processes is recorded through different lasing wavelengths. The capability of detecting small molecule, redox oxygen species, to larger molecules such as overexpressed proteins is demonstrated by using pancreatic cancer cell line. The capability of monitoring cell responses to anticancer drug is also illustrated. The proposed concept can be extended to multiplexed biolasers for investigating cell signaling, cell–cell interactions, and drug screening.

Single-Cell Laser Emitting Cytometry for Label-Free Nucleolus Fingerprinting

“…This difference can be attributed to the additional lens effect generated by the entire cell, aiding in light con nement. This pump energy is comparable to other reported biological lasers 24,26,[43][44][45] and has no phototoxicity to cells (Fig. S10).…”

法布里-珀罗光学微腔及其应用

“…年， 该团队 ［128］ 将绿色荧光蛋白或手性生物分子封装在 [128] ; (b) schematic diagram of experimental setup. Illustration is diagram of detecting different types of biochemical signals in extracellular environment [129] 1623009 -18 (a) Schematic crosssection of a nanocavity based on a metasurface [14] ;…”

Efficient Fluorescence Utilization and Photon Density of States‐Driven Design of Liquid Crystal Lasers

“…This dynamic characteristic allows integration into electro-optic and photonic devices, including tunable filters, lenses, lasers, sensors, gratings, and display systems. [12][13][14][15][16][17][18] Using the inherent advantages of CLC, such as the ability to change the molecular arrangement through external regulation, the chiral photonic band structure and photonic stop band wavelength can be tuned by addressing various external stimuli such as light, [19][20][21][22] temperature, [23][24][25][26] electric field, [10,[27][28][29][30] and magnetic field. [31][32][33] Lin et al [30] have designed an electrically tunable laser (70 nm) composed of a LC-polymer composite with a symmetrical sandwich structure.…”