Measuring age-dependent viscoelasticity of organelles, cells and organisms with time-shared optical tweezer microrheology.

ABSTRACT: Quantifying the mechanical response of the biological milieu (such as the cell's interior) and complex fluids (such as biomolecular condensates) would enable a better understanding of cellular differentiation and aging and accelerate drug discovery. Here we present time-shared optical tweezer microrheology to determine the frequency- and age-dependent viscoelastic properties of biological materials. Our approach involves splitting a single laser beam into two near-instantaneous time-shared optical traps to carry out simultaneous force and displacement measurements and quantify the mechanical properties ranging from millipascals to kilopascals across five decades of frequency. To create a practical and robust nanorheometer, we leverage both numerical and analytical models to analyse typical

SUBMITTER: Catala-Castro F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11919717 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature