Micrometric fluorescence thermometry based on intact prokaryotic cells

Novel micrometric-scale remote thermometry system employing living prokaryotic cells as thermal sensors, enabling temperature measurement through fluorescence signals without disturbing the target microenvironment.

Market need: Current micrometric-scale thermometry technologies have been largely restricted to the temperature mapping within cultured eukaryotic cells. The prokaryotic cells are traditionally considered too small to detect meaningful intracellular temperature gradients. This limitation has constrained the study of localized biological and environmental systems, where remote and non-invasive temperature measurement remains a key challenge to be solved.

Proposed solution: The developed system provides remote, non-invasive temperature measurement at the micrometric scale by using intact prokaryotic cells as thermal probes through fluorescence lifetime image microscopy measurements (FLIM).
The method has been experimentally validated in individual mesophilic and thermophilic prokaryotic cells across a wide temperature range (10–100 ºC). Potential applications include thermal mapping in microfluidic platforms and the characterization of thermal gradients in biological and environmental samples.

Competitive advantages

Validated operating range: 10–100 ºC, b beyond the current reported limit of ~50 ºC.
Use of intact prokaryotic cells as thermal probes.
Applicable to complex micrometric environments.
Remote and non-invasive measurement.
Overcomes the limitations imposed by eukaryotic cell size.