Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42498727›Full record

ArticleLight, science & applications2026

Physics-paired stimulated Raman scattering microscopy enables label-free phenotyping of lipid droplets 3D motility in live cells.

Shulang Lin, Bin He, Chang Liu, Rongxuan Li, Le Xin, Zhiwei Huang

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Light, science & applications, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Shulang Lin *Optical Bioimaging Laboratory, Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Design and Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore.
Bin He *Optical Bioimaging Laboratory, Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Design and Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore.
Chang LiuOptical Bioimaging Laboratory, Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Design and Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore.
Rongxuan LiOptical Bioimaging Laboratory, Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Design and Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore.
Le XinOptical Bioimaging Laboratory, Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Design and Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore.
Zhiwei HuangOptical Bioimaging Laboratory, Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Design and Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore. biehzw@nus.edu.sg.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0104-9135

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

High-speed volumetric stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) microscopy offers unique capabilities for label-free chemical imaging in living systems, yet its performance is fundamentally constrained by the trade-off between imaging speed and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). At the short pixel dwell times required for three-dimensional dynamic imaging, photon-limited detection leads to severe noise that cannot be effectively mitigated by existing denoising approaches, owing to the lack of ground truth data and temporally redundant measurements in live-cell conditions. Here we present PHYSIQ, a physics-paired in-phase and quadrature SRS imaging framework that fundamentally redefines data acquisition for noise-limited optical microscopy. By exploiting the intrinsic quadrature nature of heterodyne detection, PHYSIQ-SRS simultaneously acquires two spatially co-registered and temporally near-synchronous SRS image channels with statistically independent shot noise. This physics-paired measurement enables fully self-supervised Noise2Noise restoration without requiring ground truth or temporal redundancy. The implementation integrates dual-channel lock-in detection with defocus-corrected spatial co-registration and controlled temporal offset, establishing a robust and generalizable strategy for generating unbiased training pairs directly from physical measurements. This innovative approach achieves an SNR enhancement of ~12.5 dB while preserving quantitative Raman contrast, effectively overcoming the conventional speed-sensitivity limitation in volumetric SRS microscopy. The improved performance enables video-rate volumetric imaging and label-free 3D tracking of lipid droplets (LDs) in living cells. Using this capability, we uncover that LD dynamics are governed by discrete motility states with condition-dependent transitions, including spatial redistribution under nutrient perturbation, selective suppression of long-range transport upon glycolytic inhibition, and phase-dependent reprogramming during mitosis. PHYSIQ-SRS establishes a new paradigm of physics-enabled self-supervised imaging, providing a general solution to shot-noise-limited detection in laser-scanning microscopy. This advance opens new opportunities for high-speed, label-free volumetric imaging and quantitative investigation of live-cell biology, metabolic phenotyping, developmental imaging, and biomedical discovery.

Identifiers

PMID42498727
PMCPMC13400741

What Socratic holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.