In our group, we use optical techniques to understand the life mechanism of a single cell at the subcellular and molecular level, and further to control the life at single cell level. For example, we explore novel optical tweezers to manipulate a single cell, a single intracellular organelle, or a single molecule, further for precision bio-analysis; we design optical controlled bio-micromotors/robots to perform complex tasks in bio-microenvironments, further for precision bio-actuation; we fabricate plasmonic nanoantenna for molecular/enzymatic information capture and analysis during different cellular activities.
Optical Tweezers for Bio-Manipulationmore +
For precision in-situ bio-analysis, one of the most important step is that we can precisely capture the targets within the complex bio-microenvironments. We explore different optical tweezer platforms for selective trapping of different bio-targets, ranging from mammalian cells in-vivo, pathogenic bacteria and viruses, intracellular organelles, to biomarkers such as exosomes and biomacromolecules in body fluids.
Bio-Micromotor/robot for Mio-Actuationmore +
In addition to targeted single cell capture, to understand the life mechanism of single cells, we also want to control and regulate the function of a single cell, such as neurons. To this end, we design different intelligent and optically controlled bio-micromotors/robots that can be directly used in bio-environments. Such tiny machines can also perform many other complex biomedical tasks for precision therapy such as such as drug delivery, microsurgery, etc.
Plasmonic Nanoantenna for Bio-Detectionmore +
For deep understanding of different living mechanisms, we also need to go inside the living cells to capture the molecular and enzymatic information during different living activities. We fabricate different plasmonic nanoantenna that can be directly used within living cells. Such nanoantenna enable the optical exploration within the intracellular galaxy for sensitive optical detection of different molecular information and enzymatic activities.
