Raman Spectroscopy

Professor Małgorzata Barańska and her research group carry out a unique type of imaging studies of animal and plant tissues with the use of infrared (FT-IR) and Raman (RS) spectroscopies. Associate Professor Katarzyna M. Marzec with her project team conducts unique research on phenotyping of erythrocytes with the use of vibrational spectroscopy techniques supplemented by reference techniques of molecular spectroscopy and medical analysis. The head of the PRAM laboratory is dr hab. Katarzyna M. Marzec.

These modern methodologies allows the imaging of the biochemical composition of the endothelium and blood vessel wall, the subcellular distribution of the metabolic changes and the relative concentration of the endogenous compounds, which are essential for endothelial activity. Moreover, taking advantage of the unique spectroscopy methods, the team of Laboratory develops studies to characterize the biochemical fingerprints of endothelial dysfunction and vascular wall diseases. The state of the art equipment for Raman spectroscopy, which is combined with an atomic force microscope (AFM), optical scanning microscope (SNOM) and a confocal microscope (CRM), constitutes a unique type of equipment that is used in this laboratory.

The Raman Spectrometer (WITec alpha300) allows qualitative and quantitative measurement of chemical compounds in cells and tissues with spectral resolution up to 0,2 μm. Thanks to its unique construction the system allows simultaneous analysis of the sample by Raman technique and by AFM technique characterizing surface topography of the sample. The revolving nosepiece of the microscope allows application of various measurement techniques (CRM, SNOM or AFM) on the same biological sample, without moving the sample.

Chiral Raman Spectrometer (BioTools) allows measuring Raman optical activity (ROA), which is defined as the difference between Raman intensity between Raman spectra of chiral molecules derived using right- and left- circularly polarized light.