Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF)

2 ARTICLES PUBLISHED IN JoVE

Developmental Biology

Direct Force Measurements of Subcellular Mechanics in Confinement using Optical Tweezers

Frederic Català-Castro¹, Valeria Venturini^2,3, Santiago Ortiz-Vásquez¹, Verena Ruprecht^2,4, Michael Krieg¹

¹Neurophotonics and Mechanical Systems Biology, Institut de Ciències Fotòniques, ICFO, ²Center for Genomic Regulation (CRG), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, ³Institut de Ciències Fotòniques, ICFO, ⁴Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF)

Here, we present a protocol to investigate the intracellular mechanical properties of isolated embryonic zebrafish cells in three-dimensional confinement with direct force measurement by an optical trap.

Biology

High-Throughput Behavioral Aging and Lifespan Assays Using the Lifespan Machine

Andrea Del Carmen-Fabregat^1,2, Lucia Sedlackova¹, Natasha Oswal^1,2, Nicholas Stroustrup^1,2

¹Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST), ²Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF)

The imaging platform "The Lifespan Machine" automates the lifelong observation of large populations. We show the steps required to perform lifespan, stress resistance, pathogenesis, and behavioral aging assays. The quality and scope of the data allow researchers to study interventions in aging despite the presence of biological and environmental variation.