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Study of mechanical property of T-lymphocytes by Optical tweezers (OT) (CAT#: STEM-MB-1299-WXH)

Introduction

T lymphocytes is a type of white blood cell. T lymphocytes are part of the immune system and develop from stem cells in the bone marrow. They help protect the body from infection and may help fight cancer. Also called T cell and thymocyte.




Principle

Optical tweezers (originally called single-beam gradient force trap) are scientific instruments that use a highly focused laser beam to hold and move microscopic and sub-microscopic objects like atoms, nanoparticles and droplets, in a manner similar to tweezers. If the object is held in air or vacuum without additional support, it can be called optical levitation.
The laser light provides an attractive or repulsive force (typically on the order of piconewtons), depending on the relative refractive index between particle and surrounding medium. Levitation is possible if the force of the light counters the force of gravity. The trapped particles are usually micron-sized, or even smaller. Dielectric and absorbing particles can be trapped, too.

Applications

• Optical tweezers are used in biology and medicine (for example to grab and hold a single bacterium, a cell like a sperm cell or a blood cell, or a molecule like DNA).
• Nanoengineering and nanochemistry (to study and build materials from single molecules).
• Quantum optics and quantum optomechanics (to study the interaction of single particles with light).

Procedure

1.Sample preparation
2.Force Calibration
3.Measurement
4.Analysis

Materials

Optical tweezers