Optical Tweezer Arrays Based on Optical Imaging Fibers

描述（由申请人提供）：该项目旨在开发一个平台，用于同时和并行显微操作数千个颗粒，包括活细胞和微球。该技术应该为移动，捕获，组装，定位，检查和分选单个颗粒和细胞提供强大的工具。这种能力在诊断、药物发现、治疗和基础研究领域具有广泛的潜在应用。成像光纤束将耦合到激光器，激光束将被分成数千个小聚焦点的阵列，形成光阱阵列。最初的工作将集中在提高系统的能力，阵列粒子，使密集阵列多达1000个陷阱被创建。微流体平台将被集成到系统中，以使溶液能够以可再现的方式递送到阵列。光镊将光学捕获各种尺寸的单细胞和微粒，从1微米到几十微米不等。此外，该系统将与用于控制阵列中的每个单独的光阱的装置集成，从而使该系统能够选择性地捕获和释放单独的颗粒或细胞。在进行系统改进以提高仪器的现有能力之后，将进行几次概念验证实验以确定系统的能力和局限性。这些应用包括DNA阵列和细胞捕获。这项工作的长期目标是开发一种平台技术，用于同时筛选和选择许多颗粒或细胞。该技术适用于细胞选择、血液和肿瘤诊断、组合筛选、纳米组装、基因表达分析以及各种筛选、选择和诊断应用。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This project aims to develop a platform for simultaneous and parallel micromanipulation of thousands of particles including both living cells and microspheres. The technology should offer a powerful tool for moving, trapping, assembling, positioning, examining, and sorting single particles and cells. Such capabilities have a broad range of potential applications in the fields of diagnostics, drug discovery, therapeutics, and basic research. An imaging fiber bundle will be coupled to a laser and the laser beam will be divided into an array of thousands of small focused spots, forming an array of optical traps. Initial work will focus on improving the system's capabilities to array particles to enable dense arrays of up to 1000 traps to be created. A microfluidics platform will be integrated into the system to enable solutions to be delivered to the array in a reproducible manner. The optical tweezers will optically trap single cells and microparticles of various sizes, ranging from 1 micron to tens of microns. In addition, the system will be integrated with a device for controlling each individual optical trap in the array, thereby enabling the system to selectively trap and release individual particles or cells. After system improvements have been performed to enhance the existing capabilities of the instrument, several proof-of-concept experiments will be performed to determine the system's capabilities and limitations. Such applications include DNA arrays and cell trapping. The long-term goal of the proposed work is to develop a platform technology for performing screening and selecting many particles or cells simultaneously. The technology has applicability to cell selection, blood and tumor diagnosis, combinatorial screening, nanoassembly, gene expression analysis and a wide variety of screening, selection, and diagnostic applications.