Rational patterning and tailoring of graphene relies on the disclosure suitable reagents for structuring target functionalities 2D-carbon network. Here, a series hypervalent iodine compounds, namely, 1-chloro-1,2-benziodoxol-3(1H)-one, 1,3-dihydro-1-hydroxy-3,3-dimethyl-1,2-benziodoxole, 3,3-dimethyl-1-(trifluoromethyl)-1,2-benziodoxole is reported to be extremely efficient diversified patterni...

Atomic force microscopes (AFM) provide topographical and mechanical information of the sample with very good axial resolution, but are limited in terms of chemical specificity and operation time-scale. An optical microscope coupled to an AFM can recognize and target an area of interest using specific identification markers like fluorescence tags. A high resolution fluorescence microscope can vi...

In this work we propose and build a multimodal optical workstation that extends a commercially available confocal microscope (Nikon Confocal C1-Si) to include nonlinear/multiphoton microscopy and optical manipulation/stimulation tools such as nanosurgery. The setup allows both subsystems (confocal and nonlinear) to work independently and simultaneously. The workstation enables, for instance, na...

The preparation and observations of spheroplast W303 cells are described with Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope (ESEM). The spheroplasting conversion was successfully confirmed qualitatively, by the evaluation of the morphological change between the normal W303 cells and the spheroplast W303 cells, and quantitatively, by determining the spheroplast conversion percentage based on the OD...

By monitoring the end-to-end extension of a mechanically stretched, supercoiled, single DNA molecule, we have been able directly to observe the change in extension associated with unwinding of approximately one turn of promoter DNA by RNA polymerase (RNAP). By performing parallel experiments with negatively and positively supercoiled DNA, we have been able to deconvolute the change in extension...

This article describes a nanomanipulation technique that makes it possible to mechanically and quantitatively stretch and supercoil a single linear DNA molecule. We show how this technique can be extended to the study of protein–DNA interactions that lead to DNA untwisting, particularly to the study of promoter unwinding by RNA polymerase during the initiation of transcription. In our system, a...

We study interfacial water trapped between a sheet of graphene and a muscovite (mica) surface using Raman spectroscopy and ultrahigh vacuum scanning tunneling microscopy (UHV-STM) at room temperature. We are able to image the graphene-water interface with atomic resolution, revealing a layered network of water trapped underneath the graphene. We identify water layer numbers with a carbon nanotu...

We developed manipulation of single virus using optical tweezers and dielectrophoretic (DEP) force in a microfluidic chip. We used a microfluidic chip made of poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS). The chip has independent virus chamber and cell chamber to make quantitative analysis of the functions of influenza virus before and after infection to a cell. DEP force integrated inside virus chamber conce...

The mechanisms of RecA-mediated three-strand homologous recombination are investigated at the single-molecule level, using magnetic tweezers. Probing the mechanical response of DNA molecules and nucleoprotein filaments in tension and in torsion allows a monitoring of the progression of the exchange in real time, both from the point of view of the RecA-bound single-stranded DNA and from that of ...

Amicromanipulation system is a robotic device which is used to physically interact with a sample under a microscope, where a level of precision of movement is necessary that cannot be achieved by the unaided human hand It is well known that pick-and-place is very important for 3-D microstructure fabrication since it is an indispensable step in the bottom-up building process. The main difficulty...