Oral Presentation 24th Australian Conference on Microscopy and Microanalysis 2016

Infrared Microspectroscopy is increasingly revealing valuable bio-chemical information of biological and biomedical systems beyond the tissue level at the single cell level. At the Australian Synchrotron Infrared Microscopy beamline, FTIR spectroscopy provides sensitive molecular fingerprinting for tissues and cells without the need for sample pre-treatment with stains or external markers. Due to the brightness of a synchrotron source, good signal to noise at high spatial resolution (diffraction limited) can routinely be performed at the single cell level. 

In the study of live microbiological systems the principal restriction on the application of infrared microspectroscopy is the strong absorbance by water in the region of 1650 cm^-1, overlaying the Amide I absorption band of proteins. The combination of a highly focused synchrotron beam with liquid cells constructed with microfabricated spacers of 6 to 8 microns in thickness have enabled complete mid-IR spectra to be obtained of single live cells under aqueous media within short scan times.  

Some applications include analysis of spectral changes in normal single living cells, diagnosing different disease states, discrimination of cell types and monitoring the effects of drug treatment at the single cell level. Details of these studies conducted at the infrared microscopy beamline at the Australian Synchrotron are presented.