FLIM microscopy with a streak camera: Monitoring metabolic processes in living cells and tissues

A critical understanding of subcellular phenomena—from the perspectives of various metabolic processes—stems from a strategic alliance between technological innovations and elegant model systems. Intravital fluorescence imaging modalities rely on exciting specific fluorophores in cells and tissues and interpreting the measured fluorescence emission signals in relation to the cellular processes that can modulate these signals (Richards-Kortum and Sevick-Muraca 1996). A recent upsurge in multiple modes, including spectral, lifetime, polarization etc., has shed valuable information on the various aspects of molecular–cellular and physiological complexity (Lyons 2005; Pawley 2006; Periasamy 2001).