OPTICAL TWEEZERS

	Manipulating to test the implicated interaction forces
	+33 5 61 55 68 37

This system was specially developed to provide detailed characterizations of the properties of living components. Based on the use of light for the capture and movement of objects, this non-invasive technique offers the opportunity to manipulate the organelles within a cell. Optical tweezers also enable the measurement of forces of tension or adhesion, in or between cells. The interferometry system that is coupled to it can rapidly identify, with a nanometric precision, the localization of objects captured by the optical tweezers and refine the measurements of their physical properties. FRET and super resolution systems will soon be implemented in this system.

 

Services:

Fluorescence imaging Measuring of mechanical properties, forces and intracellular frictions on in vitro samples and living cells (active and passive microrheology) Force metrology by spectral analysis or by application of a hydrodynamic flow Measuring of membrane tensions and adhesions Monitoring of objects (beads, organelles, membranes) in 3D by interferometry Multi-scale correlative approach (FRET, super-resolution) Image analysis coupled to these techniques Diffusion analysis   Access mode: By assistance Collaborative project

Fibronectin-functionalized bead. The bead is maintained in place with the laser; the bead’s relaxation makes it possible to obtain information on the forces at play.

OPTICAL TWEEZERS

Name Optical tweezers station mounted on an inverted wide-field microscope, interferometry, FRET and fluorescence

Location LBCMCP – Campus UPS

A publication made thanks to this ressource:

• Structured illumination fluorescence microscopy with distorted excitations using a filtered blind-SIM algorithm.R ayuk and all, Optics letters, 2013 Nov 15;38(22):4723-6.