BACKGROUND We recently reported that sphingomyelin (SM) analogs substituted on the alkyl chain by various fluorophores (e.g. BODIPY) readily inserted at trace levels into the plasma membrane of living erythrocytes or CHO cells and spontaneously concentrated into micrometric domains. Despite sharing the same fluorescent ceramide backbone, BODIPY-SM domains segregated from similar domains labelle...

An in-line Mach–Zehnder-interferometer-based two-dimensional (2-D) micrometric displacement sensor was fabricated by inserting a polarization maintaining fiber (PMF) with a length of 1 cm between two conventional singlemode fibers (SMFs). The left end of the PMF was mismatch fusion spliced with an SMF. The right end of the PMF was connected to another SMF without fusion splicing. Two independen...

Abstract We have developed a new method to measure the viscosity of micrometric films by thermomechanical analysis with hemispherical probe millimetric diameter. The loading curve (displacement vs. time) recorded as tip crosses whole film at constant load until it touches substrate is fitted theoretical shape that has been obtained after solving problem liquid flow under tip. validated measurin...

We describe an optical approach based on Digital Holography for single-particle characterization of mineral dust and micrometric particles, focusing the analysis airborne particles in meltwater from Antarctic ice cores. record holograms formed by superposition transilluminating reference beam waves scattered single particles. Taking a cue recent approaches field holography methods, we process t...

The presence of microscopic particles in suspension in industrial fluids is often an early warning of latent or imminent failures in the equipment or processes where they are being used. This manuscript describes work undertaken to integrate different photonic principles with a micro- mechanical fluidic structure and an embedded processor to develop a fully autonomous wear debris sensor for in-...

Super-hydrophobic surfaces are bio-inspired interfaces with a superficial texture that, in its most common evolution, is formed by a periodic lattice of silicon micro-pillars. Similar surfaces reveal superior properties compared to conventional flat surfaces, including very low friction coefficients. In this work, we modified meso-porous silicon micro-pillars to incorporate networks of metal na...

We present in this chapter some key technologies for lab-on-a-chip (LOC) applications, in particular related to magnetic transport and optical detection. Our objective is to show how these technologies can be realized and operate synergistically to support integrated biodetection. Magnetic microparticles (“beads”) have proven to be versatile and reliable objects in biomedical analysis and are s...