Laser
microtools 
Shamci Monajembashi
with
the technical help of Gabriele Günther and Silke Schulz
The
group is the
first one to have, after the first publication in 1987 by Arthur
Ashkin and Steven Chu (Nobel prize 1997, now US energy minister)
,
used optical
tweezers outside the US and the fis irst group worldwide to have
published the
combined use of laser microbeams and optical tweezers (original
papers: click 1989 ....
or 1991 ... below).
This has
been acknowledged in several reviews in NATURE and SCIENCE and in an
overview on "Seven Techniques which will change the life
sciences" THE SCIENTIST. One
single-authored
book, one edited book
(together with M W Berns) in the Series "Methods in Cell Biology" (for details click
"Publications" on the
left)
and approx. 10
reviews have resulted from this work. The 2008 evaluation committee for
the FLI has rated this technique as "extremely
important, outstandingly proficient".
Major
milestones are
i) Laser microbeams can be used
for contactless microinjection of material in cells,
for induction of
cell fusion and for microdissection of chromosomes
ii) Laser microbeams can simulate
damages of heart infarction
iii) Optical tweezers can be used
to study the effect of scars in the heart on calcium signalling
iv) Optical tweezers,
particularly their variant EMFA, simulate effects of pressure on blood
vessels
v) Laser
microbeams are useful tools in DNA damage repair studies (click
"Research" and
corresponding logo)
Laser Mikrostrahl und
Optische Pinzette
1989 Labor 2000, 36 - 47
Application of Laser Optical Tweezers
in Immunology and Molecular Genetics 1991 Cytometry 12, 497 - 504
Licht
als Werkzeug in der Zell- und Molekularbiologie (Anwendungen in der
Herzforschung) 2005
BIOforum
09, 40 - 41)
Laser microinjection, laser
induced cell fusion and microdissection of chromosomes (ppt)
Laser microbeams for DNA Damage
Induction, Optical Tweezers for the Search of Blood Pressure Relaxing
Drugs: Contributions to Ageing research
2009 SPIE Proc 7400-09, in press
see also Laser Microbeam and
Optical Tweezers in Ageing
Research 2009 ChemPhysChem 10, 79 - 85
Laser
Microtools
in studies of blood pressure regulation
Blood pressure relaxing mechanisms in human
endothelial cells after
vertical stress
(Poster)
Applications
of EMFA (Erythrocyte Mediated
Force Application
technique) in
regulation of blood pressure