Poster: Integrating Optical Trapping into Lightsheet Microscopy Setup for Intracellular Contractivity Analysis

How an optical trap in combination with a lightsheet microscope can help understand the active dynamics of a microtubial actin network. Optical traps utilize precise high powered lazers in order to restrict the motion of specific particles. We utilize this system to specifically analyze the force response of active microtubular networks. By measuring the force strain when mimicking flow in the active network, we can more fully understand how the contractility of the system changes as it is physically broken down. Additionally, the utilization of a lightsheet microscopy setup can allow for a deeper three dimensional analysis of this phenomenon through its z-axis varied imaging. By integrating an optical trap setup into the lightsheet microscope, we can visualize the network and its asters as a whole object and see how the three dimensional structure of the network correlates to the force response readings of the optical trap.