Optical Tweezers Research

The Optical Tweezer lab is equipped with a fluorescence microscope with optical tweezers capability. By combining fluorescence signals with optical tweezers it is possible to carry out single molecule manipulation paired with in vitro and in vivo analysis.

The laboratory microscope is equipped with a cell system from Olympus. This is the modular imaging workstation for a broad range of life science experiments employing Olympus microscopes (IX81 Olympus). The MT20 illumination system is specifically designed for fast wavelength switch and attenuation, meeting the requirements of experiments involving real-time acquisition via highly sensitive digital cameras. All hardware (including peripheral devices) is synchronized by an extremely accurate real-time control board. This ensures the greatest precision in experiment timing and allows remote controlled management of experiments. CO2 and temperature control for life imaging are available to grant cells a longer life span.

Optical Tweezers employ light radiation pressure generated by a focused laser beam to manipulate microscopic objects as small as a single atom. This allows to apply forces in the pN-range and to measure displacements in the nm range of objects ranging in size from 10 nm to over 100 mm, with ms temporal resolution. The lab's custom made Optical Tweezers employ laser light at 1064-nm wavelength generated by a 5W single-mode CW fiber laser (IPG Photonics YLM-10). For Force Spectroscopy and measure displacements in the nm range, the Hamamatsu S5981 position-sensitive quadrant photodetector (QPD) is used.

Optical Tweezers allow the measurement of the force exerted by cellular structures or the induction of mechanical stresses on samples, and, thanks to the chemical specificity of fluorescence, it is possible to observe molecular processes underlying cell motility, or the mechanotrasduction of the stress applied.