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.