Mapping the formation of eumelanin using coupled measurements

Yip, Philip and Sutter, Jens U (2017) Mapping the formation of eumelanin using coupled measurements. In: FluoroFest, 2017-04-24 - 2017-04-26, Village Hotel Club.

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Abstract

Melanin plays a crucial role as a pigment all through the animal kingdom. Being a macromolecule just on the divide between an ordered crystalline or a purely amorphous form melanin has proven a challenge to structure-function analysis. Melanin assembles from small molecules much like a jigsaw and much like in a jigsaw the fine detail quickly vanishes in the overall picture. With Melanin being first and foremost a photo-active molecule we focus on spectral properties for the characterization of its structure using linked measurements of excitation and emission to identify ‘areas of interest’ in the Excitation-Emission Matrix (EEM). We then probe for characteristic fluorescence lifetimes in the identified areas to track melanin building blocks through the formation pathway.