Juanma García-Arcos

All you've ever wanted to know about FLIM analysis (and its application in Flipper-TR)!😱🤩🔬

An incredibly comprehensive and meticulous study of Flipper-TR lifetime analysis to make your membrane tension measurements using Flipper-TR more robust and reliable.

Thanks to @juanmagararc.bsky.social and @rouxlab.bsky.social for this very valuable resource!

Frequency dependence of fast-lifetime FLIM and fits for C2C12 cells.

Fluorescence lifetime estimation: a practical approach using Flipper-TR FLIM by Juan Manuel Garcia-Arcos and team: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Dr. Jane Goodall filmed an interview with Netflix in March 2025 that she understood would only be released after her death.

*ALL*source data and Python notebooks are available (you can reproduce all figures!)
🔗 doi.org/10.6084/m9.f...
We hope this helps make lifetime analysis transparent and comparable across setups.
📄 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

@rouxlab.bsky.social
#FLIM #FlipperTR #Microscopy #OpenScience

Even at realistic photon-limited conditions (~5–10 photons/pixel):
• Phasor analysis remains robust and resilient to noise, although harder to quantify in commercial software.
• Fast FLIM gives clean kinetics but depends on setup
• Fitting yields the most amount of information in ideal situations

We also compared Fast FLIM, Fitting and Phasor estimators during osmotic shocks, a direct test of membrane tension.
All track the expected lifetime shifts, but with distinct sensitivities and noise behaviors.

We quantified the shot-noise constant (c), the factor translating photon number (N) to lifetime standard deviation (σ): σ ∝ c N⁻⁰·⁵.
📊 Shot-noise constant results: Leica yields consistent photon efficiency; PicoQuant varies by estimator.

We show the behavior of tau average and tau 1 across a range of packing standards (GUV with known lipid compositions), showing that tau average has less variability than tau 1.

Flipper-TR is now a standard probe for lipid packing and membrane tension, but everyone analyses it differently.
We compared:
• Fast FLIM (mean photon arrival)
• Bi-exponential reconvolution & tail fits
• Phasor analysis
…across photon counts, repetition rates (20–80 MHz), and different set-ups.

We first review what we know about the photophysics of the Flipper-TR probe and how this lipid packing probe can be used as a tension reporter

Fluorescence lifetime estimation: a practical approach using Flipper-TR FLIM Flipper-TR is a membrane dye sensitive to lipid packing widely used to probe membrane tension in live cells via fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM). However, no consensus currently exists ...

🚨 New preprint out!
“Fluorescence lifetime estimation: a practical approach using Flipper-TR FLIM” with Tithi Mandal and @rouxlab.bsky.social
We benchmark and describe step-by-step Flipper-TR FLIM measurements across different set-ups and and strategies.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

📢New Actin Probe available at Spirochrome!

Introducing SPY650-FastAct_X our latest actin probe with highly improved kinetics and no toxicity!

spirochrome.com/product/spy6...

The product is now available from our distributors

Preprint from the @kjohnsson.bsky.social lab: doi.org/10.1101/2025...

How cells decide where to go? #CellMigration

Last year we published our 1st paper @cellcommlab.bsky.social, showing how actin-based membrane oscillations define a new direction ( #cancer & non-cancer #cells )

Full www.nature.com/articles/s41...
@naturephysics.bsky.social @focalplane.bsky.social 🧪🔬

#CellMigration happens all the time in our bodies. This may (or not) rely on adhesion molecules

#Cancer cells switch strategies during metastasis to invade other tissues

Naomi Wee (naomiwee.com) did this neat movie to explain it:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9aD...
#SciSky 🧪🔬 @cellcommlab.bsky.social

New preprint! When and how do active flows become turbulent? We found that, in unconfined active nematics, the transition to turbulence is discontinuous! With @the-chaotician.bsky.social @mpipks.bsky.social

arxiv.org/abs/2501.060...

Light reflecting off a sculpture of different structural domains found in proteins. Made from steel.

I mostly see the protein sculptures I build in the lighting of my workshop. It’s fairly static and dull lighting. When they are close to being finished, I bring them into the house and enjoy watching how they change under different natural lighting throughout the day. They are so much more dynamic!

Would you prefer to lead a lab alone or together with a science buddy? How interesting would be a research institute where joint labs are the standard?!

Group leader positions at the IMP | Research Institute of Molecular Pathology

i might be biased, but this place is amazing: great colleagues, vibrant campus, brilliant students/postdocs - and Vienna! perfect for starting an ambitious project. apply now for a GL position at the IMP …

www.imp.ac.at/career/open-...

Ok, trying to bring my community back together... I created a starter pack for lipids and membrane protein aficionados!

Feel free to share, add and distribute, so we can come together again! 😍

go.bsky.app/AEeXh86

I started a list of people working broadly on cell adhesion and cell migration. I likely missed many, please drop me a message if you want to be added

go.bsky.app/5Gzo7oZ

Hey super cool
Followed them all
Please add me too !

Scientists in Switzerland starter pack, with our avatars

I have created a starter pack of scientists in der Schweiz so we can all hopefully find each other 🇨🇭🧪

go.bsky.app/8rF765Z

Add me please :D

Four panel Star Wars meme of Anakin and Padme in the grass. Anakin looking to his left at Padme. Starts off with Padme smiling but ends with her looking crestfallen

Sunday #NewPI thoughts

This is a movie of actin filaments in a cultured cell. I like watching it and I hope you do to.

Poster with images of cells and embryos, mountains and a list of speakers

Cell and developmental biologists--Join us at the 2025 Cell Contact and Adhesion Gordon Conference. We've assembled a strong and diverse program of speakers at the cutting-edge of science in our field 1/n Please repost
www.grc.org/cell-contact...

Me too !!! 😄

Download our database of 492 (!) funding opportunities for EARLY-CAREER FACULTY AND RESEARCHERS.

For each entry, we provide link to funder, description, amount, deadline, and eligibility criteria (e.g. citizenship).

Download freely here: research.jhu.edu/rdt/funding-...

Adoro Mastodon, pero no he podido contenerme:

cc @irreductible.bsky.social