Optical Tweezer Arrays Based on Optical Imaging Fibers

描述(申请人提供)：该项目旨在开发一个同时和并行操作数千个粒子的平台，包括活细胞和微球。这项技术应该为移动、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。这种能力在诊断学、药物发现、治疗学和基础研究领域具有广泛的潜在应用。成像光纤束将被耦合到激光器上，激光光束将被分成数千个小聚焦光点的阵列，形成光学陷阱阵列。最初的工作将集中在改善系统排列颗粒的能力，以便能够创建多达1000个陷阱的密集阵列。微流控平台将集成到系统中，以使解决方案能够以可重复的方式提供给阵列。光钳将光学捕获大小从1微米到数十微米的单个细胞和微粒。此外，该系统将与控制阵列中每个单独的光学陷阱的设备集成在一起，从而使该系统能够选择性地捕获和释放单独的粒子或细胞。在对系统进行改进以增强仪器的现有能力后，将进行几个概念验证实验，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。这项拟议工作的长期目标是开发一种同时进行筛选和选择多个颗粒或细胞的平台技术。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、基因表达分析以及广泛的筛选、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.