Imagine trying to take a high-definition photo of something deep inside a piece of cloudy glass. Standard tools either can't see deep enough or the image is too blurry. This project creates special 'light-switch' molecules that let us see tiny details—down to 150 nanometers—without needing the dangerous, high-power lasers usually required for that level of clarity.
Current deep-tissue imaging faces a trade-off: two-photon microscopy penetrates deep but has limited resolution, while four-photon microscopy has high resolution but requires extreme, often damaging, laser intensities.
The project is developing switchable fluorophores that combine two-photon absorption and negative photochromism to achieve high resolution without high-power lasers.
If you are a drug discovery firm dealing with the need to monitor how a therapy responds within living cells—this project developed switchable fluorophores that provide the resolution of four-photon microscopy using standard 800 nm lasers. This allows for deeper tissue penetration of 250–500 µm while maintaining extreme precision.
If you are a clinical laboratory dealing with the diagnosis of diseases in intact biological tissues—this project developed a technique that breaks the resolution limit of two-photon microscopy. This enables the detection of molecular-level structures without the optical damage associated with higher-energy lasers.
If you are a microscope manufacturer dealing with the technical challenge of implementing four-photon microscopy due to extreme laser intensity requirements—this project developed a molecular approach that achieves similar resolution using two-photon absorption. This removes the need for specialized, high-cost deep NIR laser systems.
Based on available project data, there is no pricing information provided as the project is currently in the research and development phase.
Based on available project data, the project focuses on the design and validation of switchable fluorophores in biological environments; industrial scaling details are not yet specified.
Based on available project data, the project is funded by HORIZON-EIC, but specific patent or licensing terms have not been disclosed in the summary.
The project period is from 2023-03-01 to 2026-02-28.
The technology is designed to work with standard lasers at around 800 nm, making it compatible with existing two-photon microscopy setups.
The consortium is purely academic, consisting of 4 university partners across 3 countries (Belgium, Spain, Sweden). With an industry ratio of 0%, the project is currently driven by fundamental research and scientific validation rather than commercial productization.
Contact Chalmers Tekniska Hogskola AB in Sweden
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