Invité par Jérôme POLESEL,
Abstract :
Glass micropipettes are the typical instrument for intracellular injection, patch clamping or extracellular deposition of liquids into viable cells. The micro pipette is thereby slowly approached to the cell by using micro manipulators and visual control through an optical microscope. During this process, however, the cell is often mechanically injured which leads to cell death and failure of the experiment. To overcome these challenges and limitations of this conventional method we developed the FluidFM technology, an evolution of standard AFM microscopy combining nanofluidics via cantilevers with integrated microfluidic channel. [1] The channel ends at a well defined aperture at the apex of the AFM tip while the other extremity is connected to a reservoir. The instrument can therefore be regarded as a multifunctional micropipette with force feedback working in liquid environment.
We are focusing on three applications for single-cell biology: i) displacement [2] and adhesion of microorganisms, ii) force-controlled formation of gigaseal, and iii) single virus deposition on cell surfaces.
Yet, the FluidFM is suited for local surface-chemistry experiments too.
Laboratory of Biosensors and Bioelectronics, Institute for Biomedical Engineering
Laboratory of Biosensors and BioelectronicsInstitute for Biomedical Engineering, ETH Zürich