Red-Blood-Cell-Based Microlens: Application to Single-Cell Membrane Imaging and Stretching

The red blood cell (RBC)-based microlens has attracted extensive insights into biological applications due to its intrinsic advantages of total biocompatibility. Most of the currently available RBC microlenses are fixed on a substrate and cannot be moved in a flexible manner, which limits their applications to optical imaging. Here we present an RBC microlens assembled by launching a 980 nm laser beam into a tapered fiber probe. The RBC microlens was then used to scan a single-cell membrane in three dimensions for optical imaging with a magnification factor of 1.7. Moreover, the microlens was employed to stretch the cell membrane with an enhancement factor of 1.5 in a noncontact and noninvasive manner.