Multimodal techniques and strategies for chemical and metabolic imaging at the single-cell level

• Published in: Current opinion in biotechnology 2024-08, Vol.88, p.103149, Article 103149
• Main Authors: Kesharwani, Ajay, Gujrati, Vipul
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; biotechnology; cell structures; fluorescence; Humans; mass spectrometry; metabolites; Molecular Imaging - methods; Multimodal Imaging - methods; Single-Cell Analysis - methods
• ISSN: 0958-1669; 1879-0429; 1879-0429
• DOI: 10.1016/j.copbio.2024.103149

Single-cell chemical and metabolic imaging technologies provide unprecedented insights into individual cell dynamics, advancing our understanding of cellular processes, molecular interactions, and metabolic activities. Advances in fluorescence, Raman, optoacoustic (photoacoustic), or mass spectrometry methods have paved the way to characterize metabolites, signaling molecules, and other moieties within individual cells. These modalities can also lead to single-cell imaging capabilities by targeting endogenous cell contrast or by employing exogenous contrast generation techniques, including contrast agents that target specific cell structure or function. In this review, we present key developments, summarize recent applications in single-cell interrogation and imaging, and illustrate their advantages, limitations, and outlook. •This review covers advanced SCI techniques enhancing sensitivity, resolution, and data reproducibility.•We cover fluorescence, super resolution microscopy, optoacoustic imaging, Raman, and mass spectrometry.•We compared recent developments in the context of costs, technical complexity, quantitative capability, scalability, throughput, and resource requirements.