A recent publication by Losito et al. from the lab of Prof. David Rueda (Imperial College London), reveals new information on the kinetics and mechanism of Cas12a-DNA interaction.
j.yeh13 October 2021
A recent publication by Kucera et al. in Nature Communications combined TIRF assays and Optical Tweezers measurements to investigate myosin-independent actin contraction that is relevant during cytokinesis and cell division. The authors found a new mechanism showing how anillin, a non-motor actin crosslinking and scaffolding protein, substitutes for the activity…
j.yeh23 August 2021
In a recent article published in Science Advances, researchers investigated the mechanical consequences of a missense mutation within a highly conserved region, P305L, in the kinesin motor family member A1 (KIF1A). By employing a single-molecule approach using the C-Trap® as well as biochemical and genetic assays, Lam et al. found…
j.yeh15 July 2021
A recent article published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters provides insight into the stability and folding dynamics of RNA G-quadruplexes (RG4). Using the C-Trap® optical tweezers, Ye et al. investigated the influence of a proximal single-stranded (ss) RNA sequence and found that its existence significantly impairs RG4 stability.…
j.yeh24 June 2021
In a recent publication by Keenen et al. in eLife, the authors uncover the biophysical properties of heterochromatin protein 1α (HP1α) and present a new model on how it mediates DNA condensation and phase separation. Employing a combination of ensemble and single-molecule assays, they found that within phase-separated HP1α-DNA condensates,…
j.yeh9 June 2021
In a recent article published in Nature Communications, Sanchez et al. successfully employed LUMICKS’ C-Trap® to discover new insights into the molecular dynamics of initial replisome formation. In a collaborative effort between Prof. Dekker (TU Delft) and Prof. Diffley (Francis Crick Institute) laboratories, the scientists uncovered that origin recognition complex…
j.yeh18 May 2021
A recent publication by Dai et al. in Nature Communications presents an optical tweezers-coupled Raman spectroscopy platform providing tuneable and reproducible surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) measurements. By combining a Raman microscope with the dual-trap optical tweezers and microfluidic flow chamber of the m-Trap®, the scientists were able to characterize three…
j.yeh8 April 2021
In a recent review article in Immunology, Fakhr et al. presented the z-Movi® Cell Avidity Analyzer as a solution to characterize T-cell populations by measuring the binding strength between immune and cancer cells using non-invasive acoustic force. Binding events between a T-cell and its target cell determine the initiation of…
Adrià Ferragut26 March 2021
In a recent article published in Small Methods, researchers reveal a method that uniquely captures the early phase of oxidative stress response in macrophages. Employing the powerful combination of optical tweezers, confocal fluorescent microscopy, and microfluidics of the C-Trap®, they measured the real-time intracellular response of individual macrophages to a…
j.yeh11 March 2021
A recent article in Journal of Cell Biology (JCB) describes how researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine measured the force-generating properties of KIF1A, a kinesin-3 motor known to transport synaptic vesicle precursors in neurons. Using the C-Trap® optical tweezers and motility assays, the researchers identified the mechanical properties of…
j.yeh25 February 2021
