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Optical Approaches to Visualization of Cellular Activity

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Handbook of Cell Biosensors

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Abstract

Cellular activity reveals the responses of the cells to their external stimuli, including chemicals of environmental concern. The changes in cellular activity usually represent the degree of these compounds’ toxicity. Both natural and genetically modified cells may be utilized for reporting on the presence of environmental risks. These cells may intrinsically change their metabolism, gene expression, and protein modifications under stress, resulting in alterations of their physiology and behavior. In this chapter, we review the utilization of optical methods for the visualization of cellular responses. The types of optical changes, including absorbance, fluorescence, and bioluminescence, monitored by common optical detectors, are discussed and compared. For genetically modified cells, the frequently used reporter genes such as lacZ, gfp, lux, and luc generate products that can be detected by optical detectors. The operation principle and performance of common optical detectors including photomultiplier tube (PMT), charge-coupled device (CCD), and complimentary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) are briefly reviewed and compared.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Center for Applied Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan

    Mei-Yi Lu & Ji-Yen Cheng

  2. Department of Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung, Taiwan

    Ji-Yen Cheng

  3. Institute of Biophotonics, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Ji-Yen Cheng

  4. College of Engineering, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan

    Ji-Yen Cheng

Authors
  1. Mei-Yi Lu
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  2. Ji-Yen Cheng
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Correspondence to Ji-Yen Cheng .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. UMR CNRS 6144 GEPEA, Université de Nantes, La Roche sur Yon, France

    Gerald Thouand

Section Editor information

  1. Institute of Life Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel

    Shimshon Belkin

  2. Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College, London, UK

    Paul Freemont

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Lu, MY., Cheng, JY. (2019). Optical Approaches to Visualization of Cellular Activity. In: Thouand, G. (eds) Handbook of Cell Biosensors. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47405-2_127-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47405-2_127-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-47405-2

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