FLIM/FRET

FLIM/FRET (fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy/Förster resonance energy transfer) is a fluorescence microscopy-based approach to the study of direct protein-protein interactions in live cells. In this technique, fluorescent molecules called fluorophores are attached to the proteins that are being imaged. FRET is a mechanism that occurs when two of these fluorophores are separated by a distance of between 1 and 10 nanometres. FLIM is used to detect and map the FRET interactions of the fluorophores. In doing so, this allows the spatial localisation and quantification of protein interactions to be inferred in vivo.