Introduction to Föster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET)

This lecture was prepared as an introductory lecture for master's students in "Biomedical Imaging" program at the University of Turku. It is part of the course "Fluorescence in Bioanalytical Research" Link to the course from University of Turku study guide: https://opas.peppi.utu.fi/en/course/BIMA5105/7803?period=2024-202 It is only the introduction and by no means comprehensive teaching material. This version of the slides does not include the application of Fluoresence Lifetime Microscopy (FLIM) in measuring FLIM. Teaching plan: I start with an activating exercise, linking to the previous lectures of the course and giving students motivation on why we need the microscopy technique I am teaching them today. We discuss fluorescence resonance energy transfer and how to measure that in biological applications to show interactions between molecules. The teaching is based on giving a lecture and in between I ask students questions and try to keep them active and engaged. I have a soft toy with me that I hand to one student and if the students are not actively raising hands I ask them to circulate the toy to the next person answering the questions. As for the material I am using powerpoint slides, mentimeter online tool for brainstorming, short video clips or parts of londer videos, and interactive online demos that I have links to in slides. At the end of the lecture I bring the same activating assignment up and ask them to redesign the experiment using the knowledge they learned today.