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Mechanical/Optical Testing of Single Muscle Cell
Micro-Tweezer, designed to work with the SI-H product line of muscle testing equipment, allows you to securely hold single muscle fibers (as shown in the image above) without damaging the cells. On one side the Micro-Tweezers are integrated in a highly sensitive force transducer. On the other side the Micro-Tweezer is integrated (via a control box) into a piezo nanomotor (if needed) or a standalone tweezer.
A hollow metal tube with two tapered tweezer tips of custom design in a closed position has a thin, stainless steel rod running through the center of it. When the rod is pushed towards the tip using the control box, the fingers of the tip open to allow the tweezers to grasp the muscle fiber. As the stainless steel rod retracts, the tweezers close and securely hold the fiber. The unique control box of the Micro-Tweezer, combined with the nanomotor, lets you control the distance between the tweezers. With microscopic cells, you need tweezers that will move as little as a few micronsat a time with nanometer precision and stability, and the ingenious SI-H Micro-Tweezers are designed to do just that.
Living cells disintegrate on contact with bare metal, so the Micro-Tweezer are coated with a biologically friendly polymer.
The complete system, including micromanipulators for course movement, can be adapted to an inverted microscope to create an advanced single cell force/length research unit.
 
(Unpublished data: C.W. Ward and W.J. Lederer, University of Maryland, Baltimore and University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute)
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