Umeå seminar series:”C-Trap: combined optical tweezers, confocal microscopy and microfluidics for the study of single-molecule dynamics and mechanics”
May 27, 2026 @ 12:00 – 13:00 CEST
Presenter: Rubén Casanova-Sáez, Manager of the C-trap Facility, Department of Plant Physiology (UPSC)
The C-Trap facility at KBC provides access to a dual-trap C-Trap Dymo 300 system, an integrated platform that combines optical tweezers, multichannel microfluidics, and fluorescence microscopy. This unique setup enables simultaneous manipulation, visualization, and force measurement of biomolecules with sub-nanometer spatial precision and sub-millisecond temporal resolution. Based on highly focused laser beams, optical tweezers can trap and control microscopic particles, allowing precise application and detection of forces in the picoNewton range at the single-molecule level.
The facility supports real-time investigations of biomolecular interactions under near-physiological conditions, including DNA–protein and RNA–protein binding, protein folding, and conformational dynamics. Integration with confocal fluorescence microscopy enables direct observation of molecular events such as binding, translocation, and structural changes, while the microfluidics system allows rapid exchange of reagents and environmental conditions during experiments. This correlative approach provides simultaneous access to mechanical and biochemical information within a single experiment, overcoming limitations of traditional bulk assays that average out heterogeneous or transient behaviors.
In this seminar, I will introduce the C-Trap instrument and its capabilities, outline the support available to facility users, and present selected examples of research enabled by the C-Trap.
Learn more about the C-Trap Facility at UMU: https://www.umu.se/en/research/infrastructure/c-trap-facility/
Registration: Sign up for the IRL seminar and reserve your free lunch by Monday, 25 May 10:00, or follow online (registration is not required):
Zoom link: https://umu.zoom.us/j/61307079123
Meeting ID: 613 0707 9123
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