HOME /

Nanosurgery with femtosecond lasers

We have developed a technique to disrupt submicrometer-sized organelles within living cells or tissue without affecting the surrounding material or compromising viability of the cell or organism. When a femtosecond laser pulse is tightly focused into a nearly-transparent biological material, energy is deposited by nonlinear absorption only in the focus where laser intensity is high, resulting in disruption of the structure in the focal volume. Because the absorption is confined to the small focal volume, the surrounding material is unaffected, allowing micrometer precision in the disruption of biological tissue.
Subcellular surgery and nanosurgery, at Chemistry Seminar, Middle Tennessee University, Friday, February 12, 2021

We use femtosecond laser pulses to manipulate sub-cellular structures inside live and fixed cells. Using only a few nanojoules of laser pulse energy, we are able to selectively disrupt individual mitochondria in live bovine capillary epithelial cells, and cleave single actin fibers in the cell cytoskeleton network of fixed human fibro-blast cells. We have also used the technique to micromanipulate the neural network of C. Elegans, a small nematode. Our laser scalpel can snip individual axons without causing any damage to surrounding tissue, allowing us to study the function of individual...

Read more about Subcellular surgery and nanosurgery
Subcellular surgery and nanoneurosurgery, at CLEO-PR 2017 in Singapore, Thursday, August 3, 2017

 

We use femtosecond laser pulses to manipulate sub-cellular structures inside live and fixed cells. Using only a few nanojoules of laser pulse energy, we are able to selectively disrupt individual mitochondria in live bovine capillary epithelial cells, and cleave single actin fibers in the cell cytoskeleton network of fixed human fibro-blast cells. We have also used the technique to micromanipulate the neural network of C. Elegans, a small nematode. Our laser scalpel can snip individual axons without causing any damage to surrounding tissue, allowing us to study the...

Read more about Subcellular surgery and nanoneurosurgery
Subcellular surgery and nanosurgery, at Physics Colloquium, University of Massachusetts Boston (Boston, MA), Wednesday, November 5, 2008:
talk_1421.pdf
We use femtosecond laser pulses to manipulate sub-cellular structures inside live and fixed cells. Using only a few nanojoules of laser pulse energy, we are able to selectively disrupt individual mitochondria in live bovine capillary epithelial cells, and cleave single actin fibers in the cell cytoskeleton network of fixed human fibro-blast cells. We have also used the technique to micromanipulate the neural network of C. Elegans, a small nematode. Our laser scalpel can snip individual axons without causing any damage to surrounding tissue, allowing us to study the function of individual... Read more about Subcellular surgery and nanosurgery
Subcellular surgery and nanosurgery, at Wednesday Night Research Seminar, Harvard University (Cambridge, MA), Wednesday, September 25, 2013:
talk_2200.pdf
We use femtosecond laser pulses to manipulate sub-cellular structures inside live and fixed cells. Using only a few nanojoules of laser pulse energy, we are able to selectively disrupt individual mitochondria in live bovine capillary epithelial cells, and cleave single actin fibers in the cell cytoskeleton network of fixed human fibro-blast cells. We have also used the technique to micromanipulate the neural network of C. Elegans, a small nematode. Our laser scalpel can snip individual axons without causing any damage to surrounding tissue, allowing us to study the function of individual... Read more about Subcellular surgery and nanosurgery
Manipulation of Single Cells with Sub-cellular Precision Using Femtosecond Laser Pulses, at Photonics West, Commercial and Biomedical Applications of Ultrafast Lasers IV (San Jose, CA), Wednesday, January 23, 2002:
talk_422.pdf
Femtosecond laser pulses centered at 800 nm are used to manipulate sub-cellular structures inside live and fixed cells. Using only a few nanojoules of laser pulse energy, we are able to selectively disrupt individual mitochondria in live bovine capillary epithelial (BCE) cells, and cleave single actin fibers in the cell cytoskeleton network of fixed human fibro-blast cells. We tightly focus femtosecond laser pulses using high numerical aperture (NA) microscope objectives to create high laser intensity in the sub-micrometer-sized focal volume. Laser energy is absorbed through non-linear... Read more about Manipulation of Single Cells with Sub-cellular Precision Using Femtosecond Laser Pulses
Three-dimensional microfabrication for photonics and biomedical applications, at Macro 2006 - World Polymer Congress (Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil), Sunday, July 16, 2006:
talk_1278.pdf
We use two-photon absorption polymerization to fabricate microstructures containing compounds with interesting properties for optical and biomedical applications. Our investigations open the door to new applications in data storage, waveguides manufacturing, organic LEDs, optical circuitry and scaffold for bio-applications.
Subcellular surgery and nanosurgery, at Physics Colloquium, University of Notre Dame (Notre Dame, IN), Wednesday, May 12, 2010:
talk_1625.pdf
We use femtosecond laser pulses to manipulate sub-cellular structures inside live and fixed cells. Using only a few nanojoules of laser pulse energy, we are able to selectively disrupt individual mitochondria in live bovine capillary epithelial cells, and cleave single actin fibers in the cell cytoskeleton network of fixed human fibro-blast cells. We have also used the technique to micromanipulate the neural network of C. Elegans, a small nematode. Our laser scalpel can snip individual axons without causing any damage to surrounding tissue, allowing us to study the function of individual... Read more about Subcellular surgery and nanosurgery
Laser-induced microexplosions: ultrafast physics with clinical applications, at 20th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (Hong Kong), Thursday, October 29, 1998:
talk_1114.pdf
We used water and human skin tissue to compare the surgical potential of 100-fs and 200-ps laser pulses. For investigation of threshold behavior of 100-fs and 200-ps pulses, we use water as a model for tissue. In addition to having a lower threshold, we find that energy deposition is much more consistent with 100-fs pulses. We also compared 100-fs and 200-ps laser pulse effects on the surface and in the bulk of human skin tissue. On the surface, pulses with 100-fs and 200-ps duration leave similar size ablation regions. In the bulk both 100-fs and 200-ps pulses produce cavities, however, 100-... Read more about Laser-induced microexplosions: ultrafast physics with clinical applications
Subcellular surgery and nanoneurosurgery, at A Year of Physics Colloquium, North Carolina A&T State University (Greensboro, NC), Thursday, November 10, 2005:
talk_1163.pdf
We use femtosecond laser pulses to manipulate sub-cellular structures inside live and fixed cells. Using only a few nanojoules of laser pulse energy, we are able to selectively disrupt individual mitochondria in live bovine capillary epithelial cells, and cleave single actin fibers in the cell cytoskeleton network of fixed human fibro-blast cells. We have also used the technique to micromanipulate the neural network of C. Elegans, a small nematode. Our laser scalpel can snip individual axons without causing any damage to surrounding tissue, allowing us to study the function of individual... Read more about Subcellular surgery and nanoneurosurgery
Subcellular surgery and nanosurgery, at Physics Colloquium, Amherst College (Amherst, MA), Thursday, October 4, 2007:
talk_1347.pdf
We use femtosecond laser pulses to manipulate sub-cellular structures inside live and fixed cells. Using only a few nanojoules of laser pulse energy, we are able to selectively disrupt individual mitochondria in live bovine capillary epithelial cells, and cleave single actin fibers in the cell cytoskeleton network of fixed human fibro-blast cells. We have also used the technique to micromanipulate the neural network of C. Elegans, a small nematode. Our laser scalpel can snip individual axons without causing any damage to surrounding tissue, allowing us to study the function of individual... Read more about Subcellular surgery and nanosurgery
Subcellular surgery and nanosurgery, at Physics Colloquium, Australian National University (Canberra, Australia), Tuesday, March 24, 2009:
talk_1447.pdf
We use femtosecond laser pulses to manipulate sub-cellular structures inside live and fixed cells. Using only a few nanojoules of laser pulse energy, we are able to selectively disrupt individual mitochondria in live bovine capillary epithelial cells, and cleave single actin fibers in the cell cytoskeleton network of fixed human fibro-blast cells. We have also used the technique to micromanipulate the neural network of C. Elegans, a small nematode. Our laser scalpel can snip individual axons without causing any damage to surrounding tissue, allowing us to study the function of individual... Read more about Subcellular surgery and nanosurgery
Sub-cellular nanosurgery in live cells using ultrashort laser pulses, at Photonics West (San Jose, CA), Friday, January 21, 2005:
talk_1175.pdf
We use femtosecond laser pulses to selectively disrupt the cytoskeleton of a living cell and probe its mechanical properties. The nanosurgery setup is based on a home-built two-photon microscope. To image, we use a 80-MHz, 100-pJ/pulse laser beam, which is scanned across the sample; to cut, we introduce a second, 250-kHz, 1 to 5-nJ/pulse, laser beam and locally ablate sub-cellular structures. Simultaneous cutting and imaging allows us to study immediate cellular response with several hundred-nanometer spatial and less than 500-ms time resolution. We severed single actin bundles inside live... Read more about Sub-cellular nanosurgery in live cells using ultrashort laser pulses
Using short bursts of photons to manipulate biological matter at the nanoscale, at Winter Colloquium on the Physics of Quantum Electronics (Snowbird, UT), Friday, January 5, 2007:
talk_1257.pdf
We use femtosecond laser pulses to manipulate sub-cellular structures inside live and fixed cells. Using only a few nanojoules of laser pulse energy, we are able to selectively disrupt individual mitochondria in live bovine capillary epithelial cells, and cleave single actin fibers in the cell cytoskeleton network of fixed human fibro-blast cells. We have also used the technique to micromanipulate the neural network of C. Elegans, a small nematode. Our laser scalpel can snip individual axons without causing any damage to surrounding tissue, allowing us to study the function of individual... Read more about Using short bursts of photons to manipulate biological matter at the nanoscale
Determining properties of spindle microtubules with femtosecond nanosurgery, at BiOS 7897, SPIE Photonics West (San Francisco, CA), Monday, January 24, 2011
In eukaryotic cells, the spindle ensures the faithful segregation of the genetic material during cell division. In this study we use femtosecond nanosurgery to quantitatively measure parameters describing the metaphase spindle. We selectively cut microtubules of metaphase spindles assembled from Xenopus egg extracts. After the cut, microtubules depolymerize rapidly. Analysis of the time-lapse imaging reveals the depolymeration dynamics and allows determining the length distribution of the microtubules. We show that the average length of microtubules in metaphase spindles increases from the... Read more about Determining properties of spindle microtubules with femtosecond nanosurgery

Pages