Laboratory Infrastructure
Her is an overview of our main experimental facilities which our lab members and collaborators have free access to
Optical trapping infrastructure
We offer experimental services and collaborative opportunities for researchers who want to explore optical trapping—from single-molecule biophysics to experiments with cells.
Our platform is the newest and most advanced optical trapping system currently available. It combines four independently controlled optical traps with confocal and super-resolution microscopy, integrated microfluidics, and a highly user-friendly interface—enabling a broad range of high-impact experiments with precise control and flexibility.
We offer committed collaborations of alternatively a pay-per-use basis.
Please contact us for more information.
Link to infrastructure: Center for Optical Bio-Manipulation (COBM)
Fluorescent Microscopy
Our lab has three confocal microscopes and STORM superresolution microscopy for imaging everything from cells to single molecules. These systems are coupled to other systems such as optical tweezers or mechanical imaging (Brillouin Microscopy).
We have all typical laser wavelengths for excitation and photomultiplier tubes for collection of signals.
Brillouin Imaging
Want to image mechanical properties of matter? Then try Brillouin Microscopy which is a microscopy combining acoustics with laser scattering to achieve images showing the mechanical stiffness of your material. We use this for imaging living cells. This equipment is shared with Doostmohammadi Lab at the Niels Bohr Academy, UCPH
Scattering/interferometric microscopy
Scattering and interferometric microscopy allows us to detect nanoscopic objects with no fluorescence. This label free technology permits fast imaging at millisecond timescale or can be used for long term imaging of plant cells. Plant cells are particularly interesting for interferometric imaging due to the plant wall barrier which prevents use of intracellular markers.
Our microscope is a Rotating Optical Coherence Scattering (ROCS) microscope which has a lateral resolution of down to 150nm and axial resolution down to 10 nm.
Mechanical perturbation
We also modulate cell shapes by mechanical action. Squeezing cells between a glass coverslip and an adjustable piston allows accurate compression of cells with 1 micrometer axial resolution. This way we can test cell response to confined conditions which are often experienced by living cells in vivo.
The cell squeezer can operate while imaging cells using confocal microscopy
Periodic stretching of a cell substrate is an alternative mechanical method for deformation of cells. Cells can be fixed just after being stretched to detection any molecular or structural responses due to the stretching.