GEVIBench › All sensors › NovArch
NovArch
Photoactivatable archaerhodopsin-derived indicator whose near-infrared fluorescence is reversibly enhanced by one-photon blue or two-photon near-infrared excitation, enabling optically sectioned voltage imaging in tissue.
- Category: Opsin GEVI
- Published: 2021-05-07 — Science Advances 2021
- Derived from: paQuasAr3
- Response polarity: positive-going (fluorescence increases on depolarization)
- Spectrum: excitation peak 620 nm, emission peak 715 nm (NovArch)
- Plasmid: Addgene #153193
- Tags: Archaerhodopsin, Far-red, Photoactivated, Two-photon
Headline values (as shown in the GEVIBench table)
| Metric | Value | Definition |
|---|---|---|
| Brightness (B/B_EGFP) | 0.01× EGFP | Molecular brightness relative to EGFP (extinction coefficient × quantum yield, or a measured ratio). Sensors not measured against EGFP directly are placed through a chain of pairwise brightness comparisons, combined by geometric mean. |
| Kinetics τ_on / τ_off (ms) | 3.3 / 5.7 ms | Activation / decay time constants in ms (amplitude-weighted mean τ for multi-exponential fits). The value shown averages the measurements made at physiological temperature (≥33 °C); if there are none, it is the measurement closest to 33 °C. |
| ΔF/F per 100 mV | +41% | Steady-state fluorescence change for a 100 mV depolarization step (−70 → +30 mV); the sign gives the polarity. The table shows the first listed measurement; the median across measurements (one-photon preferred) is used for sorting. |
| ΔF/F per mV | 0.41% | Subthreshold sensitivity: fluorescence change per mV near rest (−90 to −50 mV). Where no value is reported directly, it is estimated from the F–V curve. |
| ΔF/F per AP | 28% (median of 2 measurements: 28%) | Fluorescence change per single action potential in neurons. The table shows the first listed measurement; the median across measurements (one-photon preferred) is used for sorting. |
| AP width (FWHM, ms) | 5.9 ms | Full width at half maximum of the optical spike waveform. |
| Photostability t75% @ 100 mW/mm² | 33.6 min | Time for fluorescence to fall to 75% of its initial value under one-photon illumination, linearly dose-scaled to 100 mW/mm² (t50% is used where the 75% crossing falls inside a fast initial transient). Two-photon curves are not dose-scaled and are excluded. |
| Papers using it (N_used) | 2 | Number of published research papers, tracked by GEVIBench, that used the sensor for an experiment (a popularity / track-record measure). |
Measurements and sources
Kinetics
- τ_on 3.31 ms, τ_off 5.65 ms at 25°C — Chien 2021, Fig. 3F
ΔF/F per 100 mV
- +41%, 1P — Chien 2021, Fig. 3E
ΔF/F per mV (subthreshold)
- 0.41%/mV (Derived from the whole-range 41% per 100 mV voltage sensitivity under red-only illumination (Fig. 3E); the paper reports no dedicated -90 to -50 mV subthreshold slope, but the F-V is near-linear so the average slope approximates the subthreshold slope.) — Chien 2021, Fig. 3E
ΔF/F per action potential
- 28%, 1P — Chien 2021, Fig. 4B
- 79%, 2P — Chien 2021, Fig. 4B
AP width (FWHM)
- 5.9 ms at 1000 Hz sampling, Mouse L5 cortical pyramidal neuron, acute brain slice, 1P, 23°C — Chien 2021, Fig. 7D
Brightness comparisons
- 3× the brightness of Archon1 — Chien 2021, Fig. S1C
Photobleaching
- t75% = 144 s at 1400 mW/mm² (640 nm) + 220 mW/mm² (488 nm), 1P — Chien 2021, Fig. S4C
Fluorescence–voltage (F–V) curve
ΔF/F (%) at each membrane potential, normalized to 0 at −70 mV: -100 mV: -13%; -70 mV: 0%; -60 mV: 3%; -20 mV: 20%; 0 mV: 28%; 30 mV: 41%; 60 mV: 46%; 100 mV: 57% — Chien 2021, Fig. 3E
Research papers using NovArch (2)
- Photoactivated voltage imaging in tissue with an archaerhodopsin-derived reporter — Chien MP, Brinks D, Testa-Silva G, Tian H, Brooks FP III, Adam Y, Bloxham W, Gmeiner B, Kheifets S, Cohen AE, Science Advances 2021 (HEK293T cells, in vitro; cultured rat hippocampal neurons, in vitro; mouse L5 cortical pyramidal neurons, acute brain slices; mouse hippocampus CA1, in vivo)
- Optical Switching Between Long-lived States of Opsin Transmembrane Voltage Sensors — Mei G, Cavini CM, Mamaeva N, Wang P, DeGrip WJ, Rothschild KJ, Photochemistry and Photobiology 2021 (Purified NovArch protein reconstituted in membrane vesicles (FT-Raman and UV-vis spectroscopy of the photocycle); also QuasAr2)
Data and citation
- llms.txt — summary for language models
- llms-full.txt — every sensor in full (Markdown)
- gevis.json — all values and measurements with sources (JSON)
- gevis.csv — one row per sensor (CSV)
Cite GEVIBench as: Adam E. Cohen and Daozheng Gong (2026). Voltage imaging: A practical guide. Neuron. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2026.08.002
Generated from the GEVIBench database on 2026-10-12.