Techniques

High Force Magnetic Tweezer Device

Scientific rheometer used to study the mechanical properties of biological materials in the micrometer range

2D Traction force Microscopy

Measuring the contractile forces of cells to the underlying substrate

Cell stretcher

Applying uni-axial strain to cells in combination wih life cell imaging

Live cell imaging

Technique to estimate the migration speed of different cell lines on 2D substrates

Multidirectional Force Application

The magnetic tweezer is a very versatile tool. Nevertheless all measurements with this device are limited to unidirectional force application as magnetic particles can only be pulled in the direction of increasing fields, but not pushed away. However, for a lot of cell mechanical experiments a multidirectional force application is needed. Therefore, a rotational device was built, which enables to rotate cells to any angle relative to the magnetic tweezer device and thus enables multidirectional force application.

Rotation stage

Figure 1| Rotation stage. Photographic image of the rotation stage in combination with the high force magnetic tweezer (1). The device consists of the step motor (2) and the rotation plate (3) mounted on the x-y stage (4) of the magnetic tweezer setup.

Construction of the rotation device

A stepper motor (ST208 Nanotec) turns a steel thread which is connected to the bronze cog wheel which turns the framing with the culture dish. The framing lies on a ball bearing mounted in the housing. The motor is connected to the computer allowing to give commands for arbitrary rotations.

Dipl. Phys.

Navid Bonakdar