The Technical University of Munich, Germany, is now the home of two C-Trap® Optical Tweezers – Fluorescence Microscopes. With this second installation, the renowned lab of Prof. Matthias Rief is taking their dynamic single-molecule research to the next level.
Prof. Rief is a pioneer in studying processes involved in protein folding and function at the single-molecule level. This second system is configured with our recently released Active Trap Stabilization feature that enables the group to monitor the equilibrium folding kinetics in a highly stable manner. Dr. Abhigyan Sengupta, Postdoc in the Rief lab, particularly referred to this feature as one of the main added values of the new system in their lab:
“[The Active Trap Stabilization feature ensures] stable equilibrium folding kinetics measurements for hours longer than other optical tweezers.” – Dr. Sengupta
This, together with the combination of fluorescence-force measurement capability in a single instrument allows the lab to collect and interpret fully correlated data needed for answering their scientific questions. Besides, Dr. Sengupta mentioned that the integrated microfluidics system is especially helpful to his project as it allows for testing variable assay conditions parallelly. Examples of specific projects are studying single-molecule enzymatic phosphorylation in real-time and transforming a bioengineered protein into a mechano-sensor.
We can not wait to see the first results from measurements using the new Active Trap Stabilization feature and wish all researchers involved good luck with their ongoing research!
Top banner image was licensed by Sergey Novikov / Shutterstock.com.
