Single Molecule Techniques

Single molecule techniques enable the investigation and manipulation of processes at the molecular level. This has a number of advantages over ensemble-based methods. For example, the latter often provide insufficient results in the characterization of molecular parameters, as much of the information is lost through averaging processes. Single-molecule-level measurements, on the other hand, allow the exact distribution of a parameter to be determined, rather than just a statement about its mean value. This allows different subpopulations, to be separated from each other which would blur to a common mean value in the ensemble. Similarly, information about dynamics can be obtained at the single molecule level, which would be averaged out in the ensemble over a large number of molecules. The following figure illustrates the principle: The ensemble measurement of the spectrum of a fluorescent dye (a) provides information about differences in brightness of the dye in different buffer conditions, but only the single molecule measurement (b and c) can explain this finding by elucidating the dynamics of the dye molecules.

This detailed knowledge gained at the single molecule level is essential in order to systematically optimize fluorophores for certain properties such as brightness, stability, etc. The results can be used to determine the dynamics of the dye molecules.

Due to many years of experience in this field, GATTAquant has the necessary expertise for numerous single molecule techniques, especially in the field of fluorescence microscopy and photophysics, and is therefore the ideal partner for the further development and optimization of your fluorescence applications.