Imaging
Live cell imaging & HT replacement of IHC staining
Immunocytochemistry (ICC) is a cornerstone technique for visualizing protein localization in cultured cells, yet conventional workflows remain labor-intensive, time-consuming, and difficult to standardize.
Traditional protocols rely on sequential fixation, permeabilization, blocking, and antibody incubation steps that can extend staining procedures to several hours or overnight, often spanning multiple days from sample preparation to imaging. Chemical fixation also irreversibly arrests cellular processes and can alter protein conformation or mask epitopes through cross-linking, limiting antibody accessibility and restricting analysis to a single static timepoint per sample.
Live-Cell Immunostaining with LumiPore®
LumiPore-based photoporation offers an alternative by enabling rapid intracellular delivery of fluorescently labeled antibodies and nanobodies directly into living cells. By eliminating fixation, permeabilization, and blocking, LumiPore simplifies immunostaining workflows and enables same-day live-cell analysis.
This preserves cellular physiology, allowing researchers to monitor dynamic processes, transient signaling events, protein translocation, and organelle dynamics, that cannot be captured with conventional endpoint ICC. Direct labeling in live cells may also improve access to native, unfixed epitopes that are otherwise masked or altered by cross-linking.
Scalable High-Throughput Alternative to ICC
Because photoporation replaces multi-step fixation and permeabilization protocols with a single delivery step, it is inherently more compatible with high-throughput (HT) formats than conventional ICC. Manual fixation and staining workflows introduce well-to-well and plate-to-plate variability that is difficult to control at scale, and their multi-hour or overnight timelines are poorly suited to automated screening pipelines.
Standardized, plate-based photoporation of labeled antibodies or nanobodies can instead be performed across multiwell formats in a single step, enabling same-day, high-content imaging. This makes LumiPore a scalable alternative to fixed-cell immunostaining for high-throughput applications such as phenotypic screening and kinetic profiling of protein localization or trafficking across large compound or genetic perturbation libraries.
Resources & Further Exploration
To learn more about this technology and its applications on HT replacement of ICC staining, explore our Application Notes, White Papers, Capabilities, and FAQ sections. Additional information on precise intracellular patterning and spatial cell labeling can be found in the dedicated Spatial Delivery section.
High-Throughput Transfection.Automation-Ready.
Seamless integration into your existing robotics workflows. No media exchange required. From R&D suspensions to clinical nanofiber structures.