The cell nucleus is heterogeneous in its structure and activity and many of its components are in dynamic interactions with each other. When investigating the cellular response to an external signal, such as heat shock, standard fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) experiments, which are limited to one observation volume, do only give partial results because of the missing spatial information. This work introduces a novel multi-confocal FCS (mFCS) technique that allows simultaneous FCS measurements in different locations within a cell. It is based on the use of a spatial light modulator (SLM) to create several distinct observation volumes at a time and an electron-multiplying charge coupled device (EMCCD) camera to perform parallel detection. The spatial resolution as well as the sensibility of the mFCS system are close to that of a classical FCS setup and using a special readout mode, a temporal resolution of 14µs is reached. The mFCS technique is applied to study the cellular response to thermal stress by monitoring the transcription factor heat shock factor 1 (HSF1), which is a key regulator of the heat shock response. mFCS experiments in living cells reveal changes in the dynamics of HSF1 upon heat shock. These changes concern the affinity as well as the spatial homogeneity of its interactions with DNA. Additionally, the performance of a CMOS-SPAD camera, consisting of an array of single photon avalanche diodes, is evaluated and the device is tested as an alternative detector for mFCS in living cells.
