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Volume 5 Issue 1
Jan.  2023
Article Contents

Zou M Q et al. 2023. 3D printed fiber-optic nanomechanical bioprobe. Int. J. Extrem. Manuf. 5 015005.
Citation: Zou M Q et al. 2023. 3D printed fiber-optic nanomechanical bioprobe. Int. J. Extrem. Manuf. 015005.

3D printed fiber-optic nanomechanical bioprobe


doi: 10.1088/2631-7990/acb741
More Information
  • Publish Date: 2023-01-30
  • Ultrasensitive nanomechanical instruments, e.g. atomic force microscopy (AFM), can be used to perform delicate biomechanical measurements and reveal the complex mechanical environment of biological processes. However, these instruments are limited because of their size and complex feedback system. In this study, we demonstrate a miniature fiber optical nanomechanical probe (FONP) that can be used to detect the mechanical properties of single cells and in vivo tissue measurements. A FONP that can operate in air and in liquids was developed by programming a microcantilever probe on the end face of a single-mode fiber using femtosecond laser two-photon polymerization nanolithography. To realize stiffness matching of the FONP and sample, a strategy of customizing the microcantilever’s spring constant according to the sample was proposed based on structure-correlated mechanics. As a proof-of concept, three FONPs with spring constants varying from 0.421 N m-1 to 52.6 N m-1 by more than two orders of magnitude were prepared. The highest microforce sensitivity was 54.5 nm µN-1 and the detection limit was 2.1 nN. The Young’s modulus of heterogeneous soft materials, such as polydimethylsiloxane, muscle tissue of living mice, onion cells, and MCF-7 cells, were successfully measured, which validating the broad applicability of this method. Our strategy provides a universal protocol for directly programming fiber-optic AFMs. Moreover, this method has no special requirements for the size and shape of living biological samples, which is infeasible when using commercial AFMs. FONP has made substantial progress in realizing basic biological discoveries, which may create new biomedical applications that cannot be realized by current AFMs.

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3D printed fiber-optic nanomechanical bioprobe

doi: 10.1088/2631-7990/acb741
  • 1 Guangdong and Hong Kong Joint Research Centre for Optical Fibre Sensors, College of Physics and Optoelectronic Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, People's Republic of China;
  • 2 School of Electronic and Communication Engineering, Shenzhen Polytechnic, Shenzhen 518000, People's Republic of China;
  • 3 Guangdong Key Laboratory for Biomedical Measurements and Ultrasound Imaging, School of Biomedical Engineering, Health Science Center, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518055, People's Republic of China;
  • 4 Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Micro/Nano Optomechatronics Engineering, College of Mechatronics and Control Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, People's Republic of China;
  • 5 Laboratory of Food and Soft Materials, Department of Health Sciences and Technology, ETH Zurich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland;
  • 6 Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics(WNLO), Huazhong University of Science and Technology(HUST), Wuhan 430074, People's Republic of China;
  • 7 Department of Applied Physics, The HongKong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China;
  • 8 Laboratory of Biological Electron Microscopy, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland;
  • 9 Unité Facultaire d'Anatomie et de Morphologie(UFAM), CUMRL, University of Lausanne, 1005 Lausanne, Switzerland

Abstract: 

Ultrasensitive nanomechanical instruments, e.g. atomic force microscopy (AFM), can be used to perform delicate biomechanical measurements and reveal the complex mechanical environment of biological processes. However, these instruments are limited because of their size and complex feedback system. In this study, we demonstrate a miniature fiber optical nanomechanical probe (FONP) that can be used to detect the mechanical properties of single cells and in vivo tissue measurements. A FONP that can operate in air and in liquids was developed by programming a microcantilever probe on the end face of a single-mode fiber using femtosecond laser two-photon polymerization nanolithography. To realize stiffness matching of the FONP and sample, a strategy of customizing the microcantilever’s spring constant according to the sample was proposed based on structure-correlated mechanics. As a proof-of concept, three FONPs with spring constants varying from 0.421 N m-1 to 52.6 N m-1 by more than two orders of magnitude were prepared. The highest microforce sensitivity was 54.5 nm µN-1 and the detection limit was 2.1 nN. The Young’s modulus of heterogeneous soft materials, such as polydimethylsiloxane, muscle tissue of living mice, onion cells, and MCF-7 cells, were successfully measured, which validating the broad applicability of this method. Our strategy provides a universal protocol for directly programming fiber-optic AFMs. Moreover, this method has no special requirements for the size and shape of living biological samples, which is infeasible when using commercial AFMs. FONP has made substantial progress in realizing basic biological discoveries, which may create new biomedical applications that cannot be realized by current AFMs.

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