Single-molecule imaging of non-equilibrium molecular ensembles on the millisecond timescale

Molecular recognition is often driven by transient processes beyond the reach of detection. Single-molecule fluorescence microscopy methods are uniquely suited for detecting such non-accumulating intermediates, yet achieving the time resolution and statistics to realize this potential has proven challenging. Here, we present a single-molecule fluorescence resonance energy transfer (smFRET) imaging and analysis platform leveraging advances in scientific complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (sCMOS) detectors that enable the imaging of more than 10,000 individual molecules simultaneously at millisecond rates. The utility of this advance is demonstrated through quantitative measurements of previously obscured processes relevant to the fidelity mechanism in protein synthesis.