Developing an Optical Microlever for Stable and Unsupported Force Amplification

Optical micromachines have the potential to improve the capabilities of optical tweezers by amplifying forces and allowing for indirect handling and probing of specimens. However, systematic design and testing of micromachine performance is still an emerging field. In this work we have designed and tested an unsupported microlever, suitable for...

Polymer nano manufacturing of a biomimicking surface for kidney stone crystallization studies

Detected kidney stone cases are increasing globally, yet knowledge on the conditions for stone formation is lacking. Experimental approaches mimicking the micro-environmental conditions present in vivo can help sci-entists untangle intertwined physiochemical and biological phenomena leading to kidney stone formation. As crystal nucleation often...

Optical microlever assisted DNA stretching

Optical microrobotics is an emerging field that has the potential to improve upon current optical tweezer studies through avenues such as limiting the exposure of biological molecules of interest to laser radiation and overcoming the current limitations of low forces and unwanted interactions between nearby optical traps. However, optical...

Fabrication of a microfluidic device by using two-photon lithography on a positive photoresist

Organ-on-chip (OoC) technology is increasingly used for biomedical research and to speed up the process of bringing a drug from lab to the market. The main fluidic components of an OoC device are microfluidic channels and porous membranes arranged in three dimensions. Current chips are often assembled from several parts. In the development...

3D Printing of large areas of highly ordered submicron patterns for modulating cell behavior

Fabricating large areas of geometrically complex and precisely controlled topographies is required for the studies of cell behavior on patterned surfaces. Direct laser writing (DLW) is an advanced 3D-fabrication technique, which facilitates the manufacturing of structures within various scales (from a few hundred nanometers to millimeters)....

Design of optical micromachines for use in biologically relevant environments

Advances in nanofabrication over the past twenty years have enabled the creation and use of ever-more interesting and useful micromachines. Optical micromachines are a particularly attractive subset of these for researchers in biological and soft-matter sciences, due to their potential to aid in optical tweezer studies of laser-sensitive...

Engineered 3D Polymer and Hydrogel Microenvironments for Cell Culture Applications

The realization of biomimetic microenvironments for cell biology applications such as organ-on-chip, in vitro drug screening, and tissue engineering is one of the most fascinating research areas in the field of bioengineering. The continuous evolution of additive manufacturing techniques provides the tools to engineer these architectures at...