Systems Imaging of the Immune Synapse

Three-dimensional live cell imaging of the interaction of T cells with antigen presenting cells (APC) visualizes the subcellular distributions of signaling intermediates during T cell activation at thousands of resolved positions within a cell. These information-rich maps of local protein concentrations are a valuable resource in understanding T cell signaling. Here, we describe a protocol for the efficient acquisition of such imaging data and their computational processing to create four-dimensional maps of local concentrations. This protocol allows quantitative analysis of T cell signaling as it occurs inside live cells with resolution in time and space across thousands of cells