231 / 2024-08-03 17:37:07

Living nanoprobe for cell manipulation & imaging

optical imaging

Optical nanoprobes, designed to emit or collect light in the close proximity of a sample, have been extensively used to sense and image at nanometer resolution. However, the available nanoprobes, constructed from artificial materials, are incompatible and invasive when interfacing with biological systems. In this talk, I will present a fully biocompatible nanoprobe for subwavelength probing of localized fluorescence from single-cell in human blood. The nanoprobe is built on a tapered fiber tip by optical trapping of a living sphere-shaped cell and a chain of rod-shaped living cells, which act as a high-aspect-ratio nanoprobe. Light propagating along the nanoprobe can be focused into a small spot with a full width at half maximum of around 200 nm on the surface of single-cell. Single-cell is manipulated, fluorescent signal is detected in real time at subwavelength spatial resolution, and image is observed.