光镊技术可以直接深入到活体内对细胞进行操控和定量测量,开创了人们对活体内细胞进行直接接触，无损，实时定量控制，极大的推动动物体内细胞生物学活动的研究。然而光镊操控活体内细胞的研究刚刚开始，发展成为可临床使用的技术还待进行不懈的努力。目前光镊在体内只能捕获深度约为50μm位置的细胞，而大量的生命活动现象发生在表皮层之下100μm，因此，我们首先面临的是如何克服活体内深度操控的技术瓶颈。本课题以研究增加光镊在活体动物内的细胞操控深度为目标，发展活体内细胞的光学操控技术。利用Bessel光束的非衍射原理和自修复特性增加活体内细胞操控的深度。研究Bessel光镊及其建立满足活体100μm深度捕获的技术平台。实现活体内亚毫米深度血管中细胞的捕获。研究光镊捕获效率受动物体内生物环境的影响及其激光功率对生物组织的损伤。探索光学捕获技术在动物活体临床研究和诊断中的应用。

Optical tweezers can trap and manipulate biological cells non-invasively with in living animal. Furthermore, optical tweezers also can measure the micro-force quantitatively in vivo, which will greatly accelerated the studies of in vivo biological activities. However, now optical trapping in vivo only can trap the cells at the trapping depth about 50μm, which limit the appilcation of in vivo optical tweezers seriously because lots of biological phenomenon are occurred at the depth of about 100μm. Therefore, the stringent requirement now is to explore an appropriate optical trap to go deeper into the tissue in vivo. This application is aimed to increase the trapping depth in vivo to about 100μm and develop the related optical manipulation technology in vivo. Bessel light beam that can self-reconstruct their initial beam profile even in the presence of massive phase perturbations are able to propagate deeper into inhomogeneous media. This ability has crucial potential advantages for optical trapping in thick media, such as cell clusters or skin, as well as scattering synthetic materials. We will develop the technique for optical manipulation of biological cells in vivo using Bessel light beam which will increase the optical trapping depth to about 100μm . The research contents include production of Bessel light beam, the interaction between Bessel light beam and biological tissues for increasing trapping efficiency in vivo, and trapping cells at deeper trapping depth. The actualization of this application will enhance the application of optical tweezers in studying life science in vivo, e.g., cell migration, cell sorting and targeted drug delivery.