With the good specificity, sensitivity, photo-stability and live-cell compatibility, we combined five organelle-targeted Carbow-based Raman probes and five fluorescent reporters to achieve tandem 10-color optical imaging of subcellular structures in live cells (including plasma membrane, ER, Golgi, mitochondria, lysosome, lipid droplets, nucleus, tubulin and actin). Here the unprecedented 10-color organelle imaging in live cells doesn’t require any unmixing or color compensation in image processing, which is extremely difficult to achieve by other means. To our knowledge, this is the highest number demonstrated for multi-target imaging inside living cells, and relies critically on Carbow’s well-resolved frequencies and outstanding live-cell compatibility.
F. Hu, C. Zeng, R. Long, Y. Miao, L. Wei, Q. Xu and W. Min. Super-multiplexed optical imaging and barcoding with engineered polyynes. Nature Methods (2018) in press.
