Martin Selin
Date: 11 April 2025
Time: 10:30
Place: University of Münster, Germany
Optical tweezers are powerful tools for probing microscale forces in systems ranging from colloidal particles to single molecules. Here, we demonstrate their use in two different fields. First, by trapping individual colloidal particles, we study their adsorption dynamics at liquid–liquid interfaces, highlighting the critical role of surface chemistry and the presence of polymer shells. We also observe reversible polymer attachments and stretching. Second, we apply tweezers to study single-molecule mechanics. By automating these complex biophysical experiments, we enable high-throughput measurements of molecular dynamics. Our results suggest that, like DNA, synthetic polymers can be effectively described by the worm-like chain model.