TASC is a national laboratory of CNR-INFM (National Research Council - National Institute for Physics of Matter -Italy) devoted to the development of advanced technologies and nanoscience. The laboratory is fully equipped for the dynamic manipulation of objects at the micro- and nanoscale and in a wet environment using optical tweezers, and for micro- and nanofabrication based on several lithographic techniques, electron beam and focused ion beam lithography, nanoimprinting lithography, and two beamlines for deep and high resolution X-ray lithography.
Role and expertise of CNR-INFM in the proposal
CNR-INFM will collaborate with NMI in WP1 (M. Tormen) on fabrication of nanopatterned substrates on various materials and WP10 (D. Cojoc) on optical manipulation, pN force spectroscopy and local chemical delivery by optical tweezers. CNR-INFM will perform nanofabrication of standard and non standard 2D and 3D patterning employing electron beam and combination of various techniques available, interact and collaborate with other partners in particular with SISSA for the biological experiments providing nanopatterned substrates. Using optical tweezers, diffractive optics and lasers based setups, CNR-INFM will realise optical manipulation of the cells, measure the forces exerted by the motile structures of the neuronal cell, and setup chemical delivery of small quantities of substances brought by micrometer vectors to cells by means of laser assisted microdissection and vector-cell fusion.
A selection of the most relevant publications from CNR-INFM
Di Fabrizio E, Cojoc D. et al. (2004) M. Microscopy of biological sample through advanced diffractive optics from visible to x-ray wavelength regime. Microscopy Research and Technique, 65 pp. 252-262
Emiliani V, Cojoc D, Ferrari E, Garbin V, Durieux C, Coppey-Moisan M, & Di Fabrizio, E. (2005) Wave front engineering for microscopy of living cells. Optics Express, 13 pp. 1395-1405
Cojoc D, Difato F, Ferrari E, Shahapure R, Laishram J, Righi M, Di Fabrizio E. & Torre V. (2007) Properties of the Force Exerted by Filopodia and Lamellipodia and the Involvement of Cytoskeletal Components. Submmited PlosOne June 2007
Tormen M, Carpentiero A, Ferrari E, Cojoc D. and Di Fabrizio E. (2007)Novel Fabrication Method for Three- Dimensional Nanostructuring: an application to Microoptics. Nanotechnology, 18, 385301
Seunarine K, Gadegaard N, Tormen M, Meredith DO, Riehle MO. & Wilkinson CDW. (2006) 3D polymer scaffolds for tissue engineering. Nanomedicine, 1, 281.