An automated and user-friendly optical tweezers for biomolecular investigations

Optical tweezers are not new to biological applications but building a tweezers which is versatile, automated, precise, stable and user-friendly is quite challenging. Such a tweezers usually require not only a hefty budget but vast understanding of engineer- ing of optomechanical systems. I describe in this dissertation a versatile, automated, precise, stable and user-friendly optical tweezers that we developed for biomolecular investigations under limited budget. I describe automation and control improvements along with newly-developed surface detection software. I also describe cost-e ective optomechanical devices used in tweezers with potential for broader application. Fi- nally, I present new results of single-molecule force spectroscopy of DNA overstretch- ing as a function of water isotope type. Single DNA unzipping is also presented as a proof of concept.optical science and engineeringDoctoralUniversity of New Mexico. Dept. of Physics & Astronomykoch, stevenLester, LukeThomas, jamesLidke, Keit