Multiplexed lifetime imaging of single molecules with a gated single-photon camera

Abstract

Fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) is a powerful tool to discriminate fluorescent molecules or probe their nanoscale environment. Traditionally, FLIM uses time-correlated single-photon counting (TCSPC), which is precise but intrinsically low throughput due to its dependence on point detectors. Although time-gated cameras have demonstrated the potential for high-throughput FLIM in bright samples with dense labeling, their use in single-molecule microscopy has not been explored extensively. Here, we report fast and accurate single-molecule FLIM with a commercial time-gated single-photon camera. Our optimized acquisition scheme achieves single-molecule lifetime measurements with a precision only about three times less than TCSPC, while allowing for the simultaneous multiplexing of over 3000 molecules. With this approach, we demonstrate parallelized lifetime measurements of large numbers of labeled pore-forming proteins on supported lipid bilayers, and multiplexed temporal single-molecule Forster resonance energy transfer measurements at 5-25 Hz. This method holds considerable promise for advancing multi-target single-molecule localization microscopy and biopolymer sequencing.