Berlin 2005 – scientific programme

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AKB: Biologische Physik

AKB 200: Poster Session II

AKB 200.25: Poster

Tuesday, March 8, 2005, 17:00–19:00, Poster TU C

Membrane dynamics and membrane binding events investigated by photonic force microscopy — •Holger Kress, Ernst H. K. Stelzer, Gareth Griffiths, and Alexander Rohrbach — European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Meyerhofstrasse 1, D-69117 Heidelberg, Germany

Optical tweezer based photonic force microscopy is used to study the binding of particles to the plasma membrane of macrophage cells. Macrophages are specialized cells that ingest particles such as bacteria or synthetic objects (e.g. latex beads) and enclose them into intracellular organelles. Optically trapped latex beads are moved to the plasma membrane of cells. The fluctuations of the trapped particle during the binding to the cell membrane and the following mechanical response of the membrane are tracked interferometrically. The tracked position fluctuations are measured in three dimensions with a precision of a few nanometers and a temporal resolution of 100 µ s. The tracked position fluctuations encode information about the dynamics of the binding process itself and the following mechanical response of the cell to this stimulus.