Microscopy of bioelectric potentials using electrochromism

Burhan Ahmed; Erica Liu; Lothar Maisenbacher; Pengwei Sun; Dana Griffith; Kenneth Nakasone; Ashwin Singh; Yuecheng Zhou; Bianxiao Cui; Holger Müller

doi:10.1103/p947-mlyb

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Microscopy of bioelectric potentials using electrochromism

Burhan Ahmed ¹, Erica Liu ^2,3, Lothar Maisenbacher ¹, Pengwei Sun ^4,3, Dana Griffith ¹, Kenneth Nakasone ¹, Ashwin Singh ¹, Yuecheng Zhou ^5,6, Bianxiao Cui ^2,3 et al.

Holger Müller ^1,7,*

¹Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California, USA
²Department of Chemistry, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA
³Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA
⁴Department of Radiology, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA
⁵Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The Grainger College of Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA
⁶Department of Bioengineering, The Grainger College of Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA
⁷Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, USA

^*Contact author: hm@berkeley.edu

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Phys. Rev. Applied 26, 054001 – Published 2 November, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/p947-mlyb

Abstract

Studying the electrical signals generated by living cells is key to understanding numerous biological phenomena. Electrochromic optical recording (ECORE) uses the electrochromism exhibited by certain materials to noninvasively measure these signals in real time. In this work, we report on the development of ECORE based on a high-numerical-aperture microscope objective. We demonstrate the recording of extracellular action potentials from cardiomyocytes with single-cell resolution and a high sensitivity of $6.3 μ V$ . Combining ECORE with microscopy simplifies the optical setup, allows for the simultaneous imaging of specimens, and makes ECORE accessible to a broader community of researchers, thereby enabling a better understanding of the biological processes that are integral to life.

Physical Review Applied

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Microscopy of bioelectric potentials using electrochromism

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Microscopy of bioelectric potentials using electrochromism

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