Bio- and Nano-Photonics

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Bio- and Nano-Photonics Laboratory
IMTEK – Department of Microsystems Engineering
University of Freiburg

Georges-Köhler-Allee 102
79110 Freiburg im Breisgau
Germany

How to get there

By train

Freiburg-Hbf (Central station), then Breisgau S-Bahn (station: Neue Messe / Universität), line 4 (station: Technische Fakultät) or bus line 10 (station: Technische Fakultät)

By car

Take the autobahn A5 exit “Freiburg Mitte”, towards Freiburg. Leave B31a at the turn-off marked “Uni-Kliniken”. This will take you onto the Berliner Allee, heading towards the “Messe”. The campus is located on the left, just before the Messe.

By airplane

Approx. 1 hour bus ride from the EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg or 2 to 3 hours by train or car from Frankfurt, Stuttgart or Zuerich airports.

Living cells are fascinating microsystems. Therefore we develop novel techniques for laser optical microscopy and optical force based applications, to investigate the biophysics of living cells and of bio-mimetic systems based on their nano-mechanics and thermal fluctuations.

Research Projects:

Nano-mechanics of helical bacteria in optical line traps
Project 1:  Spiroplasms – propagation dynamics of the simplest form of life, trapped and scanned in a light tube

Mechanics of phagocytosis
Project 1: The nano-mechanics of phagocytosis
Project 2: Cargo-transport by coupled molecular motors
Project 3: Membrane biophysics with giant unilamelar vesicles (GUV)

Dynamic Particle interactions
Project 1: Interferometric tracking of dynamic particle interactions with scanning line optical tweezers.

Momentum transport through bio-polymer networks
Project 1: We investigate viscoelastic properties of single and multiple microtubules coupled by thermally fluctuating trapped beads as nucleation sites.

Dynamics of MREB filaments inside Bacillus Subtilis
Project 1: With fast SR techniques we investigate cytoskeletal MreB filaments. These move through poorly understood mechanisms underneath the membrane of rod -shaped bacteria and help to organize the cell wall.

Super-resolution microscopy
Project 1: Structured illumination microscopy
Project 2: Rotating coherent scattering (ROCS) microscopy

Light-sheet microscopy (LSM) with self-reconstructing beams
Project 1: LSM using holographically shaped beams
Project 2: LSM using two photon Bessel beams
Project 3: LSM using Bessel beams and the STED principle

Surface Imaging with optically trapped probes
Project 1: Surface scanning with optically trapped probes in the presence of phase disturbing structures.

Plasmonic coupling of two optically trapped particles
Project 1:

Simulations
Project 1: Wave optics
Project 2: Brownian Dynamics