OPTICAL TWEEZERS
The science of Nano scale structures deals with the
investigation moreover as utilization of parts or systems that are 109 times smaller than the quality size of parts. Biochemistry deals with
numerous metabolic and biochemical processes of living beings. Consolidation of
those two technologies resulted in starting of Nano biochemistry. This knowledge
base combination of applied science & biochemistry will produce various
innovative tools.
Currently, optical traps are one of the most preferred
methods for manipulating objects in microscopic systems in the fields of
physics, chemistry, biology and engineering. In articular, optical tweezers
with gradient forces have proven to be an ideal tool in single-molecule
biophysics. With the aid of modern positional analysis apparatuses, the motion
and forces of a trapped biomolecule during biochemical interactions can be
measured and studied. A variety of biological mechanisms have been investigated
using optical tweezers, such as the dynamics of motor molecules, the
motion of RNA polymerase during transcription, the motion of ribosomes during
translation, protein folding and DNA-protein binding.
Optical tweezers can also be used to trap and study single cells and organelles
within cells. However, fixed optical tweezers have some restrictions:
they can only apply limited forces of 0.1–100 pN and can measure a range of
motion of ~400 nm or less.
The first time I heard of the optical tweezers was at this university. Dr. Christian Wilson told me that Dr. Steven Smith (creator of miniTwezeers) visited Chile to install an equipment of optical tweezers in our country. The goal of the project is to establish a center of individual molecules in Chile, since this technology is revolutionizing biochemistry and will surely become the standard study method in the area of biochemistry and biophysics of macromolecules in the short term.
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