Subcellular surgery and nanoneurosurgery using femtosecond laser pulses

Abstract

Femtosecond lasers provide a powerful means to address biological questions. The nonlinearity of the interaction of ultrashort laser pulses with matter opens the door to a wide range of applications. In this review, we discuss the submicrometer precision of femtosecond laser ablation and its application in severing individual cytoskeleton actin fibers and Caenorhabditis elegans sensory dendrites without causing collateral damage. Laser severing provides insight into the molecular mechanisms of the viscoelastic recoil of individual stress fibers and the regenerative capability of neuronal fibers, respectively. Additionally, we discuss the poration of cell membranes for delivery of molecular factors by nanoparticle-mediated femtosecond laser field amplification. © 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.