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Ammasi Periasamy
Professor of Research of Biology and Biomedical Engineering
Director of the W.M. Keck Center for Cellular Imaging
M.S., Physics, Annamalai University, Tamil Nadu, India, 1974
M.S./Ph.D. , Biomedical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, 1980/1983
ap3t@virginia.edu
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Research Interests |
Our current research interest is energy-based FLIM-FRET microscopy and spectroscopy, determining when and where proteins associate with one another in living cells and tissues. We have developed different light microscopy imaging systems to investigate the cellular signaling of calcium, pH, and protein-protein interactions, as well as for use as diagnostic systems in clinical imaging. These systems include digitized video microscopy, digital deconvolution, confocal, multi-photon excitation, fluorescence lifetime (FLIM), time-resolved, anisotropy, and fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) microscopy.
FRET is a process by which a radiationless transfer of energy occurs from a fluorophore in the excited state to an acceptor molecule in close proximity. The range over which this resonance energy transfer can occur is limited to about 0.01 micrometers, and the efficiency of energy transfer is extraordinarily sensitive to the distance between fluorophores. The measurement of FRET in the microscope provides a noninvasive approach to visualize the spatiotemporal dynamics of interactions between protein partners labeled with green fluorescent proteins in the living cell.
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