News & updates
18 January 2023
We launch SPyRho 555, a new fluorogenic dye for live cell RNA imaging.
SpyRho 555 is a fluorogenic dye ligand for the RNA aptamer RhoBAST developed by the lab of Murat Sunbul in Heidelberg University1). SpyRho 555 is a rhodamine dye that is cell permeable, highly fluorogenic and photostable. With its high affinity and fast on/off binding kinetics to its cognate aptamer RhoBAST, it allows overcoming the main issues of live cell RNA imaging. SpyRho 555 is highly suited for widefield, confocal, STED or single molecule localization microscopy in a PAINT like setup.
Figure 1. SpyRho 555 reversibly binds to RhoBAST aptamer with fast kinetics. Unbound SpyRho 555 exists predominantly in the closed form and is not fluorescent. Upon binding to RhoBAST aptamer, SpyRho 555 switches to the open form and becomes highly fluorescent.
1. Daniel Englert et al. Fast-exchanging spirocyclic rhodamine probes for aptamer-based super-resolution RNA imaging” bioRxiv 2022.10.24.513449 https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.10.24.513449
16 January 2023
PKmito™ probes for live cell mitochondria imaging are available.
To launch PKmito™ probes in style, we are offering a 50% discount until March 31st 2023!
PKmito™ probes are bright and photostable fluorescent probes for gentle imaging of mitochondria in live cells. They have been developed by the lab Zhixing Chen from Peking University1,2)
Live HeLa cells labeled with PKmito ORANGE and picogreen (mtDNA). movie adapted from movie S3 from reference 1) above.
1. Yang, Zhongtian, et al. “Cyclooctatetraene-conjugated cyanine mitochondrial probes minimize phototoxicity in fluorescence and nanoscopic imaging.” Chemical science 11.32 (2020): 8506-8516.
2. Liu Tianyan et al. “Multi-color live-cell STED nanoscopy of mitochondria with a gentle inner membrane stain” PNAS (2022):119 (52).
12 January 2023
SPY700-FastAct™ is available
After introducing SPY650-FastAct™ and SPY555-FastAct™, we are proud to announce that SPY700-FastAct™ is available, expanding our FastAct™ product line further into the far-red.
Our FastAct™ technology is a unique fluorescent live cell actin imaging tool. SPY700-FastAct™ labels very dynamic actin filaments as well as the more static ones. In conjugation with our SPY700 fluorophore it yields is a bright live cell actin probe that can be imaged in the far-red.
SPY700-FastAct™ is cell permeable, fluorogenic, and highly specific for actin. Unlike other FP-based actin probes, it does not require any transfection: “just add & image” is our protocol.
The movie shows 2 cell populations, stained separately with SPY505-DNA and SPY595-DNA probes, that were subsequently mixed together and further stained with SPY700-FastAct, allowing to track the 2 populations based on the color of the nuclei. Image Credit: Maxime Cammeraat from the Margadant lab, Amsterdam
20 December 2022
PKmito™ probes for live cell mitochondria imaging will be available in January 2023 through our distributors network.
PKmito™ probes are bright and photostable fluorescent probes for gentle imaging of mitochondria in live cells. They have been developed and published by the lab Zhixing Chen from Peking University1,2)
PKmito™ probes feature a unique technology: They consist of cyanine derivatives bearing intramolecular cyclooctatetraene (COT) substituents. The presence of intramolecular COT substituents very efficiently reduces the production of singlet oxygen. Singlet oxygen is a very reactive species produced by fluorophores and it is responsible of rapid cellular damage leading to cell death. PKmito™ probes are therefore allowing a very gentle imaging of mitochondria in live cells and tissues and preserve them from singlet oxygen damage and phototoxicity.
PKmito™ probes are extremely well suited for STED nanoscopy.
Live HeLa cells stained with PKmito ORANGE, SPY650-FastAct™ and SPY505-DNA imaged by confocal microscopy. Image Credit: Tinayan Liu, Peking University, China
1. Yang, Zhongtian, et al. “Cyclooctatetraene-conjugated cyanine mitochondrial probes minimize phototoxicity in fluorescence and nanoscopic imaging.” Chemical science 11.32 (2020): 8506-8516.
2. Liu Tianyan et al. “Multi-color live-cell STED nanoscopy of mitochondria with a gentle inner membrane stain” PNAS (2022):119 (52).
18 february 2022
SPY555-FastAct™ is available
After introducing SPY650-FastAct™ last year, we are proud to announce that SPY555-FastAct™ is available, expanding our FastAct™ product line into the TMR/Cy3 channel.
Our FastAct™ technology is a new and unique fluorescent live cell actin imaging tool. SPY555-FastAct™ labels very dynamic actin filaments as well as the more static ones. In conjugation with our bright and photostable SPY555 fluorophore it yields is a bright orange live cell actin probe that can be imaged with standard TMR or Cy3 settings.
SPY555-FastAct™ is cell permeable, fluorogenic, and highly specific for actin. Unlike other FP-based actin probes, it does not require any transfection: “just add & image” is our protocol.
Live neurons stained with with SPY555-FastAct™ and imaged by SIM microscopy. The 190 nm spaced actin rings along the axon are clearly visible, even before denoising. Credit: Christophe Leterrier, INP CNRS-AMU UMR, Marseille, France
25 January 2022
SPY555-FastAct™ soon available .
Following the footsteps of our new actin probe SPY650-FastAct™, we proudly announce that SPY555-FastAct™ will soon be available. Our FastAct™ technology is a new and unique fluorescent live cell actin imaging tool. It labels very dynamic actin filaments as well as the more static ones. In conjugation to our SPY555 fluorophore it yields is a bright orange live cell actin probe that can be imaged with standard TMR or Cy3 settings.
04 October 2021
SPY650-FastAct™ is available.
Spirochrome’s new actin probe, SPY650-FastAct™ is available. SPY650-FastAct™ is a new and unique fluorescent live cell actin probe. It labels very dynamic actin filaments as well as the more static ones. SPY650-FastAct™ is a bright, fluorogenic, non toxic, cell permeable and highly specific live cell probe for fluorescence imaging of actin. It does not require any transfection and works just by adding the probe to the cells and perform imaging a couple of hours later.
The movie shows ca. 3h of busy HUVECs stained with with SPY650-FastAct™ (grey LUT) & SPY555-tubullin (red hot LUT). Acquired by Jeroen Kole on the amazing RCM2 by Confocal.nl. Cells courtesy of Philippa Phelp and Anke van Bergen, Amsterdam UMC
14 September 2021
New probe coming soon
We proudly announce that we will soon launch a new product line: FastAct™
The first product, SPY650-FastAct™ is able to label very dynamic actin, it is cell permeable, bright, photostable and fluorogenic. It’s far red excitation is gentle to to the cells. Like all our other SPY™ probes, just add the probe and image the cells a couple of hours later. No transfection needed!
The probe will be soon available.
The movie shows ca. 3h of busy HUVECs stained with with SPY650-FastAct™ (grey LUT) & SPY555-tubullin (red hot LUT). Acquired by Jeroen Kole on the amazing RCM2 by Confocal.nl. Cells courtesy of Philippa Phelp and Anke van Bergen, Amsterdam UMC
1st September 2021
New distributor in Switzerland
Spirochrome is pleased to announce it has appointed Lubio Science as its exclusive distributor for all Spirochrome products in Switzerland. We are looking forward to this new collaboration with Lubio Science.
12 May 2021
GIVEAWAY PROMOTION!
The Spiro Swiss army knife kits are here.
If you’re a US customer, please visit our US distributor webpage to know how to get yours!
For Our EU customers, visit our EU distributor webpage to redeem your knife.
Quantities are limited!
5 May 2021
The Spiro Swiss army knives are coming soon!
Keep an eye on our social media, Spirochrome website or distributor websites for more info how to get these!
2 October 2020
The new organelle specific mechanosensitive Flipper-TR™ probes are available!
We introduce new Flipper-TR™ probes that target ER, mitochondria & lysosomes of live cells. Those were developped by NCCR Chemical Biology groups of Aurelien Roux and Stefan Matile in a recent article1)
1. “Mechanosensitive Fluorescent Probes to Image Membrane Tension in Mitochondria, Endoplasmic Reticulum, and Lysosomes”; Antoine Goujon, et. al.;J. Am. Chem. Soc. 141, 8, 3380–3384, 2019.
live Cos7 cells labeled with ER Flipper-TR™. Courtesy of N. Schilling, D. Haenni & U. Ziegler; Center for Microscopy and Image Analysis; University of Zurich Switzerland.
FLIM image of live Cos7 cells labeled with Mito Flipper-TR™. Courtesy of N. Schilling, D. Haenni & U. Ziegler; Center for Microscopy and Image Analysis; University of Zurich Switzerland.
22 September 2020
Our new SPY620 probes are here!
We are proud to introduce our new red emitting SPY™ probes based on Map618 fluorophore developed by the Johnsson group in Heidelberg.1)
SPY620-actin is a highly fluorogenic probe for F-actin with a turn-on ratio above 400 fold upon actin binding.
SPY620-DNA is a bright probe for nuclear staining.
Both DNA and actin probes work on live and fixed cells.
We also introduce the SNAP-tag substrate SPY620-BG for SNAP-tag* labeling inside living cells.
1. “A general strategy to develop cell permeable and fluorogenic probes for multicolour nanoscopy”; Lu Wang, et. al.; Nature Chemistry 12, 165-172, 2020.
Image: live Cos7 cells labeled with SPY620-actin. Courtesy of N. Schilling, D. Haenni & U. Ziegler; Center for Microscopy and Image Analysis; University of Zurich Switzerland.
*SNAP-tag™ is a registered trademark of New England Biolabs, Inc.
16 July 2020
Coming soon: SPY620 probes
Spirochrome will soon introduce new red emitting SPY™ probes based on the Map618 fluorophore developed in the Johnsson group in Heidelberg.1)
SPY620-actin for F-actin and SPY620-DNA for nucleus staining as well as SPY620-BG for SNAP-tag labeling will be soon available!
1. “A general strategy to develop cell permeable and fluorogenic probes for multicolour nanoscopy”; Lu Wang, et. al.; Nature Chemistry 12, 165-172, 2020.
Rat primary hippocampal neurons stained with SPY620-actin showing showing actin periodic structures. Image source: figure 4d of 1)
9 July 2020
The Flipper-TR family expands!
Spirochrome will soon introduce new Flipper-TR™ probes that target ER, mitochondria & lysosomes within live cells. Those were previously introduced by NCCR Chemical Biology groups of Aurelien Roux and Stefan Matile in a recent article1)
1. “Mechanosensitive Fluorescent Probes to Image Membrane Tension in Mitochondria, Endoplasmic Reticulum, and Lysosomes”; Antoine Goujon, et. al.;J. Am. Chem. Soc. 141, 8, 3380–3384, 2019.
19 June 2020
Spirochrome now provides highly cell permeable benzylguanine (BG) derivatives of SiR and SPY™ dyes . BG derivatives are substrates to the self-labeling tag SNAP-tag™*.
Our new BG derivatives of SiR and SPY™ fluorophores are live cell compatible substrates for SNAP-tag™* bearing fluorophores with high brightness, high photostability which are compatible with superresolution microscopy (STED & SIM) 1-3).
SPY555-BG, SiR650-BG and SiR700-BG are available.
1. “A general strategy to develop cell permeable and fluorogenic probes for multicolour nanoscopy”; Lu Wang, et. al.; Nature Chemistry 12, 165-172, 2020.
2. “A near-infrared fluorophore for live-cell super-resolution microscopy of cellular proteins”; Nature Chemistry 5, 132–139, 2013.
3. “Fluorogenic Probes for Multicolor Imaging in Living Cells”; J. Am. Chem. Soc.,138, 30, 9365–9368, 2016
*SNAP-tag™ is a registered trademark of New England Biolabs, Inc.
10 June 2020
Spirochrome will soon provide highly cell permeable benzylguanine (BG) derivatives of SiR and SPY™ dyes . BG derivatives are substrates to the self-labeling tag SNAP-tag™*. BG derivatives of SiR and SPY™ fluorophores are live cell compatible substrates for SNAP-tag™* bearing fluorophores with high brightness, high photostability which are compatible with superresolution microscopy (STED & SIM).
*SNAP-tag™ is a registered trademark of New England Biolabs, Inc.
13 May 2020
Our SPY™ probes family for live cell imaging will expand soon! A new SPY™ fluorophore will fill the gap between SPY595 and SPY650 probes, providing bright and highly fluorogenic probes!
Stay excited!
16 April 2020
Our new SPY™ probes for live cell imaging of nucleus, actin and microtubules are available. 5 different emission wavelengths are available including FITC, TMR, Alexa™594, Cy5 and Cy5.5. The new SPY™ probes are based on new fluorophores that possess high photostability, high brightness and an excellent compatibility with STED and SIM superresolution imaging.
Find our products here: SPY™ probes
06 December 2019
A new landmark paper from the Kai Johnsson group in Heidelberg was published in Nature Chemistry. A revolutionary concept to convert green, orange or red rhodamine-like fluorophores into well behaved cell permeable, fluorogenic, superresolution compatible probes, just like our well established SiR-probes.
This breakthrough is based on acidic spiroamides as analogues of the SiR fluorophore spirolactone that makes SiR so special.
Spirochrome is the exclusive licensee of this technology and a whole suite of new products will be introduced under the brand SPY™ in early 2020.
28 November 2019
Welcome to the Spiro-team Wanda!
Spirochrome is now a proud sponsor of Wanda which is living in a donkey sanctuary near the company’s headquarter! We will update you with our new mascot adventures.
Wanda is taken very good care of and is living happily with seventeen other donkeys that have been rescued from abuse, neglect, malnourishment or abandonment.
This is the website (in German) of her sweet home:
http://www.pferdehof-gruenegg.ch/
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04 August 2019
Happy 5th anniversary !
It all started on August 04 2014, when Spirochrome’s first order was shipped to Heidelberg, Germany! The last 5 years were an amazing journey where the whole Spiro-team worked very hard to provide bright, innovative and reliable probes with the best quality through an excellent service. Our whole team is very proud of its achievements.
With these lines we take the opportunity to thank all the scientists who trusted our SiR-probes and did great Science with them. We enjoyed reading every single paper or study using our probes in ways we couldn’t even think of! We are convinced that more great stories will be reported soon with the help of our products.
To celebrate our anniversary, we will soon introduce a whole suite of new fluorogenic live cell probes working in the green, orange, red and far red channels: the SPY-probes. Follow our Twitter account to SPY on us!
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06 April 2019
Kai Johnsson’s lab, in collaboration with Spirochrome, developed a new concept of photoactivatable fluorophore for single molecule localization microscopy in live cells: PA-SiR.
The preprint is online on BioRxiv
PA-SiR fluorescence can be turned on by UV-light (e.g. a 405 nm laser), forming a bright silicon rhodamine fluorophore emitting in the far-red. The mechanism of photoconversion is unprecedented and involves a photoinduced proton transfer. As the photoconversion is intrinsic to the molecule, no caging group is needed to switch to the fluorescent form, making the fluorophore cell permeable and bio-compatible.
02 April 2019
Our live cell actin probe SiR-actin took a space flight in the International Space Station (ISS). Cora Thiel et al. built a miniaturized SIM microscope and imaged live and fixed cells stained with SiR-actin in the ISS. Congratulations to the authors.
Read the article here
04 March 2019
Our fluorescent membrane tension probe Flipper-TR® is now available at our distributors Cytoskeleton, Inc (north America) and Tebu-bio (Europe without CH).
23 January 2019
Spirochrome is proud to support the 11th Conference of the International PhD Program in Life Sciences.
The conference, organized by graduate students, is designed to initiate and promote scientific discussion and networking within the Swiss and wider life sciences community.
07 January 2019
Happy New year!
Spirochrome wishes you a happy and very successful 2019.
Follow us on Twitter and find out the latest information about our products and the coming ones.
2019 will be colorful!
27 November 2018
Flipper-TR: the first fluorescent live cell fluorescent membrane tension probe is now available from Spirochrome
06 January 2017
Spirochorme introduces the new SiR-reagent SiR-BCN for click chemistry with tetrazine and azide derivatives.
05 September 2016
Spirochrome proudly launches the brand new and further red emitting SiR700 probes for actin, DNA and microtubules. SiR700 probes allow dual colour imaging experiments in live cells and dual colour superresolution imaging with STED and SIM. In addition, two new fluorogenic live cell probes for lysosomes are introduced: SiR-lysosome and SiR700-lysosome. The probes were published by the Johnsson group in JACS: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jacs.6b04782.
26 July 2016
Soon available at Spirochrome: A new SiR-probe for lysosomes and four brand new red shifted SiR-probes for actin, tubulin, DNA and lysosomes for dual colour imaging in live cells: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jacs.6b04782
22 July 2016
The European Patent Office grants the patent based on the patent application WO2013029650 covering carboxylated silicon rhodamine derivatives and probes within the European territory, of which Spirochrome is the exclusive licensee.
4 May 2016
The US patent office grants the US patent US9346957 covering on the US territory carboxylated Silicon Rhodamine derivatives. Spirochrome is the exclusive licensee.
5 October 2015
Spirochrome further expands its products portfolio and launches three new SiR-reagents: SiR-alkyne, SiR-azide and SiR-tetrazine. These reagents allow bioortogonal click chemistry.
1 October 2015
Spirochrome launched its new probe SiR-DNA. SiR-DNA is a far-red, cell permeable, non-toxic probe for DNA.
25 May 2015
Spirochrome has appointed Cytoskeleton, Inc. as its exclusive distributor for the probes SiR-actin kit, SiR-tubulin kit and Cytoskeleton kit in North America (US and CA). Customers from these countries can now find and order our probes from Cytoskeleton, Inc. here
12 Feruary 2015
Since February 2015, Verapamil, an efflux pump inhibitor, is included free of charge with every order of SiR-actin, SiR-tubulin or Cytoskeleton kit. Verapamil has been sown to enhace the uptake of SiR-probes on living cells Read more. The products SC001 SiR-actin and SC002 SiR-tubulin have therfore been renamed “SiR-actin kit” and “SiR-tubulin kit”.
19 January 2015
Leica and Spirochrome released the application note “A Bright Dye for Live-Cell STED Microscopy” exemplifying the enormous power of the combination of SiR-based probes and STED nanoscopy.
July 2014
Spirochrome was granted by EPFL an exclusive license from the patent application WO2013029650 to exclusively commercialize Silicon Rhodamine derivatives and probes.