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Encapsulation of chemicals using polymer membranes enables to control their transport and delivery for applications such as agrochemistry or detergency. To rationalize the design of polymer capsules, it is necessary to understand how the…
We show that in experimental atomic force microscopy studies of the lifetime distribution of mechanically stressed folded proteins the effects of externally applied fluctuations can not be distinguished from those of internally present…
The indiscriminate use of antibiotics and the emergence of resistant microorganisms have become a major challenge for the food industry. The purpose of this work was to microencapsulate the bacteriophage UFV-AREG1 in a calcium alginate…
Soft pair potentials predict a reentrant liquid phase for high concentrations, a behavior not observed experimentally. Here, very soft microgels confined at an oil-water interface are used as a model system of particles interacting via a…
Matter manipulation with optical forces has become commonplace in a wide range of research fields and is epitomized by the optical trap. Calculations of optical forces on small illuminated particles typically neglect multiple scattering on…
Animal cells use traction forces to sense the mechanics and geometry of their environment. Measuring these traction forces requires a workflow combining cell experiments, image processing and force reconstruction based on elasticity theory.…
Traditional cellular force-sensing techniques, such as traction force microscopy (TFM), are predominantly limited to measuring linear tractions, overlooking and technically unable to capture the nanoscale torsional forces that are critical…
The buckling of a soft elastic sample under growth or swelling has highlighted a new interest in materials science, morphogenesis, and biology or physiology. Indeed, the change of mass or volume is a common fact of any living species, and…
We describe a transducer for low-temperature atomic force microscopy based on electromechanical coupling due to a strain-dependent kinetic inductance of a superconducting nanowire. The force sensor is a bending triangular plate (cantilever)…
Nanofluidics is pivotal in fundamental research and diverse applications, from water desalination to energy harvesting and biological analysis. Dynamically manipulating nanofluidic properties, such as diffusion and friction, presents an…
Up-conversion nanocrystals (UCNCs) are a new class of nonlinear optical materials converting low energy excitation to high energy emission. Recent advances in synthesis techniques enable a control over size, shape, emission color purity as…
Microgels are soft microparticles that often exhibit thermoresponsiveness and feature a transformation at a critical temperature, referred to as the volume phase transition temperature. The question of whether this transformation occurs as…
Biomembranes are thin capacitors with the unique feature of displaying phase transitions in a physiologically relevant regime. We investigate the voltage and lateral pressure dependence of their capacitance close to their chain melting…
By converting energy into mechanical work, engines play a central role in most biological and technological processes. In particular, within the current trend towards the development of nanoscience and nanotechnology, microscopic engines…
Many eukaryotic cells are able to perform directional mechanosensing by directly measuring minute spatial differences in the mechanical stress on their membranes. Here, we explore the limits of a single mechanosensitive channel activation…
Observing and taming unusual effects arising from non-trivial light-matter interaction has always triggered scientists to better understand Nature and develop technological tools towards implementing novel applications. Recently, several…
Modern optical nano-elements pursue ever-smaller sizes and individualized functionalities. Those elements that can efficiently manipulate the magnetic field of light boast promising future applications with a great challenge: the magnetic…
Due to the potential applications in biomedical engineering, it becomes more and more important to understand the process of engulfment and internalization of nanoparticles (NPs) by cell membranes. Despite the fact that the interaction…
Response of lipid bilayers to external mechanical stimuli is an active area of research with implications for fundamental and synthetic cell biology. However, there is a lack of tools for systematically imposing mechanical strains and…
Physical properties of composite materials can be pre-engineered by controlling their structure and composition at the mesoscale. Yet, approaches for achieving this are limited and rarely scalable. We introduce a new breed of self-assembled…