A subject of wide interest in life sciences is the noninvasive characterization of microscopic objects within a complex heterogeneous system. Fluorescence microscopy is a powerful technique for imaging of biological samples. However, it shows some limitations, due to the need of introducing chemical labels that could interfere with biological functionalities. Therefore, it is desirable to implement label free real-time, three dimensional imaging with high spatial resolution, high sensitivity, and high chemical selectivity of living cells.
This projects lead to implement stimulated Raman microscopy taking advantage of three femtosecond laser sources: a Titanium-sapphire oscillator, an optical parametric oscillator (OPO) and a second harmonic generator (SHG) with a laser scanning microscope. The proposed implementation has the merit to cover all the regions of Raman spectra, i.e. C-H , silent and finger print region. The aim of this project is to investigate living cells, in order to elucidate lipids functionalities and their implications in cancer.