Metabolic imaging of single cells by mid-infrared photothermal microscopy

We developed a versatile mid-infrared photothermal (MIP) modality that enabled study of metabolic activities in living cells coupled with stable isotope probing. Performance of laser and light emitting diode were compared and system detection limit was demonstrated for different stable isotope probes. We treated the cancer and bacteria cells with deuterium, 13C and 15N labelled nutrients, and acquired the multi-spectral images with the MIP...