We designed an instrument to bring hands-on education about the fundamentals of optical trapping
and mechanical forces in biology. This device, which is intendend
to minimize cost without compromising flexibility, is currently in use in undergraduate and graduate-level teaching labs.
Details of our instrument will appear in an upcoming American Journal of Physics paper, and the optical and electronic layouts can be found on our OpenWetWare Wiki.
Below are some pictures of the trap in action.
Empty palettes
Serial number 001, 002, ...
Parts were assembled for five teaching instruments
Use in the BE.481 graduate teaching labs.
More graduate labs.
Undergraduate teaching labs.
More undergraduate labs.
Many thanks to: Dave Appleyard, Hyungsuk Lee, Kelsey Vandermeulen, Peter Lee, Maxim Shusteff, Howard Berg,
Karen Fahrner, Steve Block, Keir Neuman, Peter So, Scott Manalis, Martha Constantine-Paton, Rohan Abeyaratne,
Doug Lauffenburger and others for support on this project.
