Fluorescence

Blog posts

Towards safe and precise gene therapies: revealing the impact of DNA Supercoiling on CRISPR-Cas9 specificity

CRISPR-Cas9 represents one of the most impactful discoveries in the field of genetic engineering and medicine of recent times. Its discovery catalyzed a paradigm shift in the treatment approach to many genetic diseases, paving the way to simple and effective gene therapy for a large class of diseases. In fact, the…

Chenlu Yu5 December 2023

Blog posts

C-Trap^® experiments suggest tubulin lattice state dictates tau envelope formation

Tau is an intrinsically disordered microtubule-associated protein (MAP) that helps stabilize microtubules by forming an envelope around them. This stabilizing protein has been implicated in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, where abnormal chemical changes promote detachment of tau from microtubules and the formation of long threads that eventually lead to…

Chenlu Yu22 September 2022

Blog posts

Dynamic single-molecule analysis reveals non-linear stiffening of mitotic chromosomes

In a recent study performed by Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and the University of Copenhagen, researchers used LUMICKS’ u-Flux™ laminar flow microfluidics system together with optical tweezers and fluorescence microscopy – features combined in LUMICKS’ C-Trap® – to shed light on the structural organization of mitotic chromosomes. When preparing to undergo…

Chenlu Yu17 June 2022

Blog posts

New mechanism of helicase-induced DNA unwinding from nicks found with the C-Trap^®

A study published in eLife shows how replication protein A (RPA) activates helicase Bloom syndrome protein (BLM) to unwind double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) bidirectionally from nicks. The C-Trap® enabled the researchers to simultaneously measure and visualize the DNA–protein interactions in real time. The findings highlight previously unknown mechanisms of BLM that…

j.yeh26 March 2020

Blog posts

Controlled ligand gradient through C-Trap^® facilitates DSM measurements

A publication in the journal Micromachines describes how researchers managed to control the concentrations of DNA-binding dyes in single-molecule optical tweezers experiments on DNA. They established a controlled concentration gradient with the multi-channel laminar microfluidics system integrated with their C-Trap® correlated optical tweezers and confocal microscopy. The study demonstrates a…

j.yeh19 March 2020

Join our newsletter