Sculpting nanoparticle dynamics for single-bacteria-level screening and direct binding-efficiency measurement.

Area of Science:

• Physics
• Biotechnology
• Nanotechnology

Background:

• Optical potential wells are used for particle trapping, but systems for studying multi-particle interactions in optical lattices are scarce.
• Understanding particle kinetics and interactions is crucial for advanced biomedical applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and demonstrate an optofluidic lattice system for precise control of particle interactions.
• To investigate particle aggregation, multi-hopping phenomena, and their effect on particle residence time.
• To enable single-bacteria level screening of biological binding agents, such as antibodies.

Main Methods:

• Configured an optofluidic lattice to manipulate and observe particle behavior.
• Measured the mean residence time of single particles within the lattice.
• Utilized particle-enabled bacteria hopping for screening biological binding agents.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated precise control over particle aggregation and multi-hopping.
• Reduced the mean particle residence time from 7s to 0.6s due to mechanical interactions in aggregated particles.
• Successfully performed single-bacteria level screening of antibodies, enabling quantitative determination of binding efficiency.

Conclusions:

• The optofluidic lattice offers a novel platform for studying particle kinetics and biomolecule interactions.
• This system provides unprecedented possibilities for probing and utilizing biomolecule interactions at the single-bacteria level.
• The developed method allows for direct, selective, quantitative, and efficient determination of antibody binding efficiency.