Optical Tweezers for Nanomechanical Manipulation and Characterisation of Biological Cells

We have recently applied optical tweezers to study human erythrocyte deformation under various thermal-flow conditions, e.g. flow in an open space. Theoretically, Computation Fluid Dynamics (CFD) has been applied for simulating the complex flow-liposome interaction at different flow velocities. More importantly, both experimental and numerical studies have been carried out to determine the deformation and mechanical properties of a single erythrocyte by using optical tweezers to apply stretching forces on the cell membrane. The presentation will also demonstrate the capability and potential of optical tweezers to study the mechanical behaviours of biological cells.