The microscopic manipulation of biological specimens, individual cells and
cell components is becoming increasingly common in life science laboratories
around the world. Now, the launch of the PALM MicroTweezer Force Measurement
module from Carl Zeiss
which eliminates the need for additional hardware and time-consuming adjustment
and calibration, means that the technique can be adopted by many more users.
The Force Measurement module enables the quantitative measurement of the forces of microscopic specimens with the PALM MicroTweezers from Carl Zeiss.
The Force Measurement module not only controls the manipulation of microscopic
particles with the PALM optical tweezers but also enables the quantitative measurement
of forces relevant to many life science disciplines, visualising the data in
real-time. The new module offers users a flexible and user-friendly interface
to the software’s functionality, which will enable a large degree of freedom
in experimental design and test configuration.
The module also enables the use of the PALM MicroTweezers system for pure specimen
manipulation as well as for position detection and quantitative force measurement.
This means that direct comparisons may be made between experimental results
and data from the literature. Calibration routines for the characterization
of the optical tweezers are performed automatically and archived together with
all experimental data and images.
The Force Measurement module is supplied together with an FM StarterKit containing
the FluidCell component, which permits fast and easy sample preparation. The
PALM MicroTweezers and Force Measurement module can be combined with various
solutions from Carl Zeiss, including the PALM MicroBeam and Colibri light source.