Recent advances in optical tweezers

It has been over 20 years since the pioneering work of Arthur Ashkin, and in the intervening years, the field of optical tweezers has grown tremendously. Optical tweezers are now being used in the investigation of an increasing number of biochemical and biophysical processes, from the basic mechanic...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inAnnual review of biochemistry Vol. 77; p. 205
Main Authors Moffitt, Jeffrey R, Chemla, Yann R, Smith, Steven B, Bustamante, Carlos
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 01.01.2008
Subjects
Animals
Biochemistry - methods
Biophysics - methods
DNA - chemistry
Equipment Design
Humans
Micromanipulation - methods
Molecular Biology - methods
Molecular Motor Proteins - chemistry
Optical Tweezers
Polymers - chemistry
Reproducibility of Results
Spectrometry, Fluorescence - methods
Time Factors
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Summary:It has been over 20 years since the pioneering work of Arthur Ashkin, and in the intervening years, the field of optical tweezers has grown tremendously. Optical tweezers are now being used in the investigation of an increasing number of biochemical and biophysical processes, from the basic mechanical properties of biological polymers to the multitude of molecular machines that drive the internal dynamics of the cell. Innovation, however, continues in all areas of instrumentation and technique, with much of this work focusing on the refinement of established methods and on the integration of this tool with other forms of single-molecule manipulation or detection. Although technical in nature, these developments have important implications for the expanded use of optical tweezers in biochemical research and thus should be of general interest. In this review, we address these recent advances and speculate on possible future developments.
ISSN:0066-4154
DOI:10.1146/annurev.biochem.77.043007.090225