Förster resonance energy transfer photoacoustic microscopy

Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) provides fluorescence signals sensitive to intra- and inter-molecular distances in the 1-10 nm range. Widely applied in the optical imaging environment, FRET enables visualization of physicochemical processes in molecular interactions and conformation changes. We reported photoacoustic imaging of FRET, based on non-radiative decay that produces heat and subsequent acoustic waves. The experimental results show that photoacoustic imaging offers better penetration into scattering biological tissue. Through its ability to three-dimensionally image tissue with scalable resolution, photoacoustic microscopy provides a beneficial biomedical tool to broaden the in vivo application of the FRET technique.