Unlock Exclusive Discounts & Flash Sales! Click Here to Join the Deals on Every Wednesday!

Study of the misfolding of proteins by Optical tweezers (OT) (CAT#: STEM-MB-1290-WXH)

Introduction

Misfolding is produced by an incorrect folding process that results in the formation of a protein with a different conformation from its native fold. Protein misfolding is a common cellular event that can occur throughout the lifetime of a cell, caused by different events including genetic mutations, translational errors, abnormal protein modifications, thermal or oxidative stress, and incomplete complex formations.




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