infocus #40 December 2015 Exploring the Nano-World of Plant Cells with Hybrid Photonic-Mechanical Forces

Learn how to characterize plant cells with HPFM

DOI: 10.22443/rms.inf.1.127

Here the authors address how we may experimentally characterize plant cells by capitalizing on multiple mechanical and optical sample excitations in a hybrid fashion.

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Authors

Dr. Ali Passian

Dr. Ali Passian is a scientist in the Computational Science and Engineering Division of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, in Tennessee, USA. He is also a Joint Faculty Associate Professor at the Department of Physics, and at the Biomolecular and Chemical Engineering Department, University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He has been active in the research areas of plasmonics, nanospectroscopy, standoff spectroscopy, and high-resolution sensing and imaging. He has developed the Mode Synthesizing Atomic Force Microscopy (MSAFM), for which he received an R&D100 award, and more recently led the development of the Hybrid Photonic nanomechanical Force Microscopy (HPFM), where in addition to mechanical excitation, photoacoustic excitation are invoked in signal generation for material characterization. He received his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, and his Master of Science in Physics, from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden.

Dr. Brian Davidson

Chief Scientist, Systems Biology and Biotechnology, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee, USA

Dr. Brian Davison is Chief Scientist for Systems Biology and Biotechnology, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee, USA. He is the Science Coordinator in the DOE Bioenergy Science Center responsible for integration, characterization and modeling. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Chemical Engineering, at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville and in the Bredesen Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Graduate Education. He has performed biotechnology research in a variety of areas including bioconversion of renewable resources (ethanol, organic acids, solvents), non-aqueous biocatalysis, systems analysis of microbes (cultivation and proteomics), biofiltration of VOCs, mixed cultures, immobilization of microbes and enzymes, metal biosorption, and extractive fermentations resulting in over 130 publications. He has received an R&D100 award, and the SIMB CD Scott award, and the ORNL Science Communicator award. He received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology, and his B.S.E. in Chemical Engineering, from the University of Rochester

Dr. Rubye Farahi

Dr. Rubye Farahi has been developing various sensing and imaging technologies for the past 20 years. She has worked on an array of multidisciplinary studies such as thermo-plasmonic devices for communications, subsurface imaging and chemical mapping of biomass, microfluidic manipulation via Marangoni forces, standoff detection of chemicals based on photothermal spectroscopy, and implantable ethanol detection devices using microcantilever sensors. Her interests in high resolution microscopy emerged from her M.S. and Ph. D. in Electrical Engineering at the University of Texas at Dallas, during which she developed an apertureless near-field scanning optical microscope and conducted microfluidic studies.