Optimisation of wavelength modulated Raman spectroscopy: towards high throughput cell screening.

In the field of biomedicine, Raman spectroscopy is a powerful technique to discriminate between normal and cancerous cells. However the strong background signal from the sample and the instrumentation affects the efficiency of this discrimination technique. Wavelength Modulated Raman spectroscopy (WMRS) may suppress the background from the Raman spectra.

High-throughput optical injection of mammalian cells using a Bessel light beam.

Femtosecond photoporation is an optical method for the injection of membrane impermeable substances into cells. Typically this is a low-throughput method where each cell is individually targeted. Here, we present a novel microfluidic platform with passive optical injection improving previously reported throughputs by one order of magnitude.

Optical injection of mammalian cells using a microfluidic platform.

The use of a focused laser beam to create a sub-micron hole in the plasma membrane of a cell (photoporation), for the selective introduction of membrane impermeable substances (optical injection) including nucleic acids (optical transfection), is a powerful technique most commonly applied to treat single cells. However, particularly for femtosecond photoporation, these studies have been limited to low throughput, small-scale studies, because they require sequential dosing of individual cells. Herein, we describe a microfluidic photoporation system for increased throughput and automated optical injection of cells.

Optical chromatography using a photonic crystal fiber with on-chip fluorescence excitation.

We describe the realization of integrated optical chromatography, in conjunction with on-chip fluorescence excitation, in a monolithically fabricated poly-dimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microfluidic chip. The unique endlessly-single-mode guiding property of the Photonic Crystal Fiber (PCF) facilitates simultaneous on-chip delivery of beams to perform optical sorting in conjunction with fluorescence excitation. We use soft lithography to define the chip and insert the specially capped PCF into it through a predefined fiber channel that is intrinsically aligned with the sorting channel.

Optical deflection and sorting of microparticles in a near-field optical geometry.

Near-field optical micromanipulation permits new possibilities for controlled motion of trapped objects. In this work, we report an original geometry for optically deflecting and sorting micro-objects employing a total internal reflection microscope system. A small beam of laser light is delivered off-axis through a total internal reflection objective which creates an elongated evanescent illumination of light at a glass/water interface.