Ultrafast light-sheet optical tweezers for in situ parallelized biomechanical characterization of cells and soft tissues
Abstract
Quantitative characterization of the mechanical properties of cells and tissues is essential for understanding disease progression and tissue regeneration. Optical tweezers (OT) enable the direct application of biologically relevant forces; however, OT has been limited to single axial indentations of cells, thereby restricting throughput. Furthermore, the use of quadrant photodiodes is insufficient for assessing the large displacements required for biomechanical characterization of tissues. We present light-sheet optical tweezers as a force transducer (LOFT), an approach that improves the throughput by at least 3x through simultaneous multiparticle trapping and parallelized characterization under sub-nN forces. LOFT is achieved by uniquely integrating light-sheet illumination for extended trapping, femtosecond-pulsed lasers to augment the optical gradient force, and videography-based particle tracking for observation of force transduction. The platform is validated through single-cell indentation experiments. We then apply LOFT to myocardial tissue, revealing significant biomechanical differences between healthy and infarcted regions; the interpretation of which is further supported by quantitative multiphoton imaging using the same optical source and platform. This work represents the first demonstration of OT for the mechanical testing of intact soft tissues, and establishes LOFT as a versatile, multifunctional platform for high-throughput, minimally invasive, mechanical characterization of complex biological systems in situ.
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BibTeX
@misc{krishna2026ultrafast,
title = {{Ultrafast light-sheet optical tweezers for in situ parallelized biomechanical characterization of cells and soft tissues}},
author = {Krishangi Krishna and Gannon Lemaster and Jieyi Xu and Zhaowei Jiang and Carlonia G. Casas and Zahra Ahmed and Stephanie Roser and Kareen L. K. Coulombe and Anita Shukla and Vikas Srivastava and Kimani C. Toussaint Jr},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.22540},
eprint = {2609.22540},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.22540},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Ultrafast light-sheet optical tweezers for in situ parallelized biomechanical characterization of cells and soft tissues
AU - Krishangi Krishna
AU - Gannon Lemaster
AU - Jieyi Xu
AU - Zhaowei Jiang
AU - Carlonia G. Casas
AU - Zahra Ahmed
AU - Stephanie Roser
AU - Kareen L. K. Coulombe
AU - Anita Shukla
AU - Vikas Srivastava
AU - Kimani C. Toussaint Jr
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/18
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.22540
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.22540
AB - Quantitative characterization of the mechanical properties of cells and tissues is essential for understanding disease progression and tissue regeneration. Optical tweezers (OT) enable the direct application of biologically relevant forces; however, OT has been limited to single axial indentations of cells, thereby restricting throughput. Furthermore, the use of quadrant photodiodes is insufficient for assessing the large displacements required for biomechanical characterization of tissues. We present light-sheet optical tweezers as a force transducer (LOFT), an approach that improves the throughput by at least 3x through simultaneous multiparticle trapping and parallelized characterization under sub-nN forces. LOFT is achieved by uniquely integrating light-sheet illumination for extended trapping, femtosecond-pulsed lasers to augment the optical gradient force, and videography-based particle tracking for observation of force transduction. The platform is validated through single-cell indentation experiments. We then apply LOFT to myocardial tissue, revealing significant biomechanical differences between healthy and infarcted regions; the interpretation of which is further supported by quantitative multiphoton imaging using the same optical source and platform. This work represents the first demonstration of OT for the mechanical testing of intact soft tissues, and establishes LOFT as a versatile, multifunctional platform for high-throughput, minimally invasive, mechanical characterization of complex biological systems in situ.
ER -