PHYSICAL SCIENCES INC. — Department of Energy SBIR Phase I: 25a

Description

Discovering the real-time functions/dynamics of the cells in living organisms is a central goal of numerous biological studies- In plant biology, advanced knowledge of cell metabolism (a key cell function) could substantially accelerate the progression of cutting-edge bioengineering (e-g-, metabolic engineering) research aimed at improving modern agriculture and bio-energy production- However, plant biologists are currently lacking a viable, non-destructive, high-resolution imaging tool to investigate the real-time functions and underlying mechanisms of the plant cells in vivo- Molecular analysis technologies (e-g-, Mass Spectroscopy) are inherently destructive and provide low spatial resolution- Noninvasive imaging methods, such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Positron Emission Tomography (PET), are not suited for cellular-level studies and difficult (if not impossible) to be implemented in the field- Light microscopy (especially fluorescence microscopy) has the potential for noninvasive imaging of plant cells, but no commercial optical microscope is tailored for in vivo plant-cell imaging-