Using Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy to Accurately Measure Protein Concentration Gradients in the Presence of Noise and Photobleaching

Abstract

Many questions in cellular biophysics would benefit from accurate measurements of protein concentrations in live organisms. In particular, understanding how morphogen concentration gradients are translated into expression maps of target genes necessitate determining morphogen concentration as it varies in space and time in developing embryos and tissues. In principle, Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy (FCS) and its imaging variants, which allow measuring absolute concentrations of fluorescent proteins non-invasively, should provide an ideal strategy to tackle this challenge.