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Feature Announcement for Biomedical Optics Express

Optical Trapping Applications

Submissions Open: 1 May 2015

Submission Deadline: 15 June 2015

Biomedical Optics Express is planning a feature issue on "Optical Trapping Applications," associated with the OSA topical meeting of the same name to be held as part of the Optics in the Life Sciences Congress in Vancouver, Canada, 12-15 April 2015. The guest editors will be the co-chairs of the conference, Steven Neale and Peter Reece The feature issue will contain papers based on oral and poster presentations from the conference. While meeting participants are particularly encouraged to submit their work, this special issue is open to all contributions

Optical trapping has emerged as an invaluable tool for microscopy with extensive applications across the Life Sciences. Optical Trapping Applications (OTA) encompasses research into all aspects of particle manipulation, from the fundamental physics of particle-field interactions, to advanced application areas in Medicine and Biology. Technologies to be considered include optical tweezers and associated electrical, magnetic and acoustic techniques, with a focus on capturing synergies between different modalities and on novel bio-applications. OTA also covers applications in emerging fields of optofluidics, lab-on-a-chip, nanophotonics, plasmonics, fiber-based manipulation, aerosol analysis and holographic techniques.

Topics of interest for the feature issue include:

1. Optical Manipulation Fundamentals and Technologies

  • Holographic optical tweezers and beam shaping, adaptive optics techniques
  • Particle dynamics
  • Opto-mechanical cooling
  • Cell stretching
  • Microrheology
  • High force optical tweezers
  • Photophoresis
  • Optical trap modelling and theoretical underpinnings
  • Nanoparticle manipulation
  • Plasmonic manipulation
  • Integrated and near-field optical trapping

2. Optical Manipulation Applications

  • Single molecule biophysics
  • Cellular mechanics and mechanotransduction
  • Cellular adhesion
  • Non-equilibrium statistical mechanics
  • Nanoscale & quantum sensing
  • Environmental sensing and aerosol analysis
  • Laser cellular surgery and photoporation
  • Optofluidics/microfluidics
  • Integration with spectroscopic techniques

3. Alternative Particle Manipulation Techniques

  • Magnetic tweezers
  • Electrical manipulation: Electrodynamic balance, dielectrophoresis etc.
  • Acoustic manipulation and trapping
  • Microfluidic manipulation
  • Optoelectronic Tweezers
  • AFM applied to techniques studied by optical manipulation

All papers need to present original, previously unpublished work, and will be subject to the normal standards and peer-review process of the journal. To be eligible for publication, the papers need to add substantial and/or significant new information to the original conference summary. Normal Biomedical Optics Express Article Processing Charges will apply to all published articles.

Manuscripts must be prepared according to the usual standards for submission to Biomedical Optics Express (see: style guide) and uploaded through OSA's electronic submission system: (https://prism.optica.org), specifying from the drop-down menu that the manuscript is for the Feature Issue on Optical Trapping Applications.

Feature Issue Editors

Steven Neale, University of Glasgow, UK

Peter Reece, University of New South Wales, Australia