Short Description
This infrastructure allows to chemically, physically and optically characterize thin biological and synthetical films at solid-liquid and liquid-liquid interfaces. It can be used to study bioorganic molecules, e.g. lipids, polymers, membrane proteins and their interactions at high resolution. A SAFe 180 illumination system developed by abbelight for high-throughput 2D single-molecule and TIRF imaging is combined with a Raman spectrometer from Andor Technology and an IX83 digital microscope from Evident Europe.
The setup is equipped with three laser lines (488nm, 532nm (suitable for Raman) and 640nm) enabling epi-, light sheet- and total-internal-reflection illumination. Raman spectroscopy can be used to obtain vibrational spectra of molecular films at interfaces without resonance or surface enhancement. Geometrical confinement with total internal reflection enhances chemical signals from the interfacial layer and suppresses the water background. Furthermore, the fluorescence system supports several super resolution microscopy techniques as DNA-PAINT, STORM and PALM.
Contact Person
Assoz.Univ.-Prof. DI Dr. Andreas Horner
Research Services
For details please contact the responsible scientist.
Methods & Expertise for Research Infrastructure
Andreas Horner, Institute of Biophysics, and Sabine Hild, Institute of Polymer Science, combine their expertise in biophysical characterization of lipid/polymer-based membranes and incorporated membrane proteins and the physic-chemical characterization of macromolecular materials, respectively.
2023-2025
153.491,55€
project leader: Andreas Horner, co-PI: Sabine Hild (JKU Linz)
Austrian Science Fund (FWF)