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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...

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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
Photodisruption in turbid tissues with ultrashort laser pulses, at Photonics West 2000 (San Jose, CA), Tuesday, January 25, 2000:
talk_331.pdf
We investigate the potential of femtosecond laser pulses for photodusruptive surgery on the surface and in the bulk of turbid tissue. Human epidermis cultures, mouse skin, and pig skin were used as tissue models. We use nonlinear absorption of tightly focused 100-fs laser pulses to vaporize tissue in the focal volume. By focusing the pulse in the bulk of the skin, we can vaporize 10-µm diameter regions up to 100 µm beneath the surface with minimal damage to the surrounding tissue. This technique offers exciting possibilities for clinical dermatology applications, such as tattoo removal and... Read more about Photodisruption in turbid tissues with ultrashort laser pulses
Sub-cellular nanosurgery in live cells using ultrashort laser pulses, at Photonics West 2006 (San Jose, CA), Sunday, January 22, 2006:
talk_1176.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...

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Subcellular surgery and nanosurgery, at Baetjer Colloquium, Princeton University (Princeton, NJ), Friday, November 16, 2007:
talk_1340.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 University of Missouri St. Louis (St. Louis, MO), Wednesday, March 9, 2011:
talk_1726.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 femtosecond laser ablation, at 2005 SPIE Photonics West Conference (San Jose, CA), Wednesday, January 26, 2005:
talk_1082.pdf
We study the selective ablation by femtosecond laser pulses of sub-cellular structures in bovine endothelial cells, with selectively stained microtubules, actin fibers, and nuclei. The cells are placed in a custom-built inverted fluorescence microscope with a 1.4 NA oil-immersion objective. The laser used for ablation is centered at 800 nm delivering 100-fs laser pulses at a repetition rate of 1 kHz and the typical energy delivered at the sample is 1–5nJ. To determine the structural change and the size of the laser-affected area, we use transmission electron microscopy (TEM), in addition to... Read more about Sub-cellular femtosecond laser ablation
Subcellular surgery and nanosurgery, at Shanghai Jiao Tong University (Shanghai, China), Tuesday, March 27, 2007:
talk_1310.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
Nanosurgery with Femtosecond Lasers, at 2009 OSA Frontiers in Optics (San Jose, CA), Wednesday, October 14, 2009:
talk_1434.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 Nanosurgery with Femtosecond Lasers
Subcellular surgery and nanosurgery, at Biophysics Colloquium, Elon University (Elon, NC), Friday, October 16, 2015:
talk_2535.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 Sigma Pi Sigma Colloquium, University of Connecticut (Storrs, CT), Friday, April 28, 2006:
talk_1203.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 SPS Lunch Seminar, Yale University (New Haven, CT), Wednesday, April 23, 2008:
talk_1389.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 32nd Puerto Rico Interdisciplinary Scientific Meeting, University of Puerto Rico Carolina (Carolina, PR), Saturday, March 10, 2012:
talk_1842.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

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