Controlling Biomolecules With Magnetic 'Tweezers'

SPACE MEDICINE

NIST post doctoral researcher Elizabeth Mirowski inserts a magnetic tip into a holder for a magnetic force microscope. The tip will be used to manipulate magnetic microparticles attached to biomolecules as part of a project to study folding patterns and other biochemical details. Photo by Geoffrey Wheeler

Boulder - Apr 13, 2004
An array of magnetic traps designed for manipulating individual biomolecules and measuring the ultrasmall forces that affect their behavior has been demonstrated by scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

Described in a recent issue of Applied Physics Letters, the chip-scale, microfluidic device works in conjunction with a magnetic force microscope. It's intended to serve as magnetic "tweezers" that can stretch, twist and uncoil individual biomolecules such as strands of DNA.

The device should help scientists study folding patterns and other biochemical details important in medical, forensic and other research areas.

The new NIST device works like drawing toys that use a magnetized stylus to pick up and drag magnetic particles. Magnetic particles 2 to 3 micrometers across are suspended in a fluid and injected into the device.

The surface of a thin membrane enclosing the fluid is dotted with an array of thin film pads made of a nickel-iron alloy. When a magnetic field is applied, each particle is attracted to the closest nickel-iron "trap."

So far, the research team has demonstrated that the traps attract individual particles and that the microscope tip can gently drag particles with piconewton forces. (One piconewton is about a trillionth the force required to hold an apple against Earth's gravity.)

The next step is to attach particles to both ends of biomolecules such as DNA. The trapping stations then can be used to hold one end of a molecule while the microscope tip gently pulls on the other end.

By applying magnetic fields in different directions, the researchers hope to ultimately rotate the magnetic particles to produce complex single molecule motions for genomic studies.

SPACE MEDICINE

Beyond Nano And A Scale Sensitive Enough To Weigh A Virus

Ithaca - Apr 05, 2004
Cornell University researchers already have been able to detect the mass of a single cell using submicroscopic devices. Now they're zeroing in on viruses. And the scale of their work is becoming so indescribably small that they have moved beyond the prefixes "nano" "pico" and "femto" to "atto." And just in sight is "zepto."

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