Laboratory of Cellular Mechanics

Faculty of Science / Department of Physics

3 (1)

DESCRIPTION

The Laboratory conducts research on the physical properties of the biological activity of the systems under study. It focuses on cellular adaptation to external forces, the characterization of mechanical properties of the studied cells and, more recently, the identification of the biological activity through the detection of fluctuations in systems where thermal fluctuations predominate. To address these problems of physical and biological interest, our research team has built and developed ad-hoc experimental techniques such as optical tweezers and the detection of fluctuations through laser interferometry, complemented by Fourier analysis, correlations and wavelets for characterizing complex systems.

RESEARCH LINE

Biophysics

Complex systems

Advanced instruments

EQUIPMENT

The laboratory is equipped with a wide variety of instrumentation for building and/or modifying experimental setups, including digital cameras, sources of coherent and incoherent light, highly sensitive and fast response photodetectors, data acquisition systems and digital control of instruments. Some of the developed or modified equipment available in the laboratory are:

Olympus IX-81 inverted microscope equipped with clear field, dark field, phase contrast and differential interferential contrast techniques with 4x, 10x, 20x, 40x, 60x and 100x immersion lenses, as well as three-channel fluorescence.

Optical tweezers designed and optimized to detect fluctuations in the range of 0.1 to 10kHz, with a data acquisition rate of up to 1MHz (limited by the QDP position sensor response of 100kHz). The instrument uses a temperature and current stabilized 975nm infrared laser. The optical tweezer is built on a Thorlabs optical and opto-mechanical base that allows for taking clear field microscopic images in transmission and features a two-channel fluorescence microscopy.

STAFF

Dr. Roberto Bernal
Jefe de laboratorio

Vicente Gálvez
Ayudante de investigación

Javiera Ugarte
Tesista, ayudante de investigación

Diego González
Ayudante de investigación

Vicente Catalán
Ayudante de investigación

CONTACT INFORMATION

Contact: roberto.bernal@usach.cl
Phone: + 56 2 27183433
Website: https://fisica.usach.cl/es/mecanica-celular
Location: Edificio de Investigación, 4th floor.

ADDRESS
Casa Central, Primer piso
Av. Libertador Bernardo O’Higgins 3363, Estación Central, Santiago de Chile.

TELEPHONE
(+56-2) 271 80047

E-MAIL
comunicaciones.vriic@usach.cl