BECKMAN LASER INSTITUTE

Using optical tweezers and a position sensitive diode to assess the adhesion forces between cells or substrates to specific antibodies covalently attached to polystyrene beads.

A Quad Photo Diode (QPD) is used in conjuction with a spatial light modulator (SLM) in a custom built holographic optical tweezer system to examine the movement of microbeads attached to cells, beads, or substrates to study the adhesion forces of the objects.

Cells are the smallest organism and are referred to as the building blocks of life, yet understanding the cell has been a challenge to many researchers.

Numerous projects focus on the cell, from cell movement and the cytoskeleton to cell function and the organelles that occupy the cell cytoplasm. Cell function is usually assessed by looking at which proteins and other factors result in a specific action. This process has been coined as a signaling pathway.

Where do these pathways begin within a cell and what starts the cascade? The answers to these questions vary greatly depending on cell type and what function we are looking at. As such, current projects in the BEAMS Lab take advantage of laser tweezers and their ability to trap microparticles to study the interactions, and therefore the adhesion properties, between coated particles and cells.

IMAGES

Various projects underway in the MMS Lab

NAVIGATION

ASSOCIATED SITES