About this Research Topic

Background

Fluorescence decay kinetic data provide significant and additional insight for many biological,
biomedical, biochemical, and biophysical studies. The fluorescence lifetime is a valuable measurement
because of the quantitative information that is imparts, which is largely independent of fluorophore
concentration. These measurements are sought after because they reflect a variety of intracellular
changes such as molecular interactions, metabolism, and cellular microenvironmental status. The
collection of fluorescence decay times has been applied using many advanced analytical techniques
including polarization imaging, super-resolution imaging, FRET measurements, and many more. Yet,
there is complexity in the interpretation of lifetime data owing to heavy data processing requirements
such as data fitting and reduction. Phasor plotting has been trending and emerging as a useful means
to simplify fluorescence lifetime analyses. Phasor graphs originated by vectorizing frequency-domain
lifetime data, and have been translated from time-domain data as well. As phasor analyses become
routine for lifetime data interpretation, understanding how the phasor plot works, the limitations, and
benefits thereof, is important for all of bioscience.

The goal of this Research Topic is to bring together a collection of articles or reviews that apply phasor
plotting to analyze fluorescence lifetime data. Collectively, these studies will expand the application of
fluorescence lifetime and set a standard for phasor analyses. Secondly, contributions to this area might
shed new light on ways in which biology research is conducted and understood. Studies improving and
interpreting phasor plot are encouraged.

Studies improving and interpreting phasor plot are encouraged, including both original research and reviews articles. This Research Topic will include – but is not limited to:

• Phasor plot methods of improvement
• Phasor plots for analysis of biological data
• Phasor plots in FRET analysis
• Phasor plotting with time-domain lifetime data
• Phasor plotting with frequency-domain lifetime data

Keywords: florescence lifetime data, phasor analysis, phasor plot, FRET analysis

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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