FluidFM® ADD‑ON for Nanosurf AFMs
Empower your Nanosurf atomic force microscope with new applications.
Extend the application scope of your Nanosurf atomic force microscope with our FluidFM ADD-ON. The FluidFM ADD-ON is available for the Nanosurf FlexAFM and CoreAFM platforms and a unique integrated FPM solution on the FlexAFM.
Full integration
Complete integration of software, optical, force, and fluidic control
Predefined workflows
Experimental workflows are pre-defined within the software
Increase throughput
10x higher throughput for cell adhesion measurements with FluidFM
Easy & fast probe mounting
The mounting of a FluidFM probe onto your AFM is fast and simple and does not require any tooling. The video (courtesy of Nanosurf) shows how a FluidFM probe is filled and mounted onto a Nanosurf FlexAFM.
Safe & reliable
The custom FluidFM probe holder for your AFM assures safe, tight and reliable mounting of FluidFM probes without the need of any tweezers.
Tailored to each system
Our FluidFM probe adapters are tailored to the geometrical and physical requirements of your Nanosurf AFM.
Use Cases with a FluidFM ADD-ON and Nanosurf AFMs
Mechanobiology
Colloidal spectroscopy of HeLa cells
A colloid is picked up by FluidFM and used to probe a living cell and create a force map. The FluidFM microfluidic control is fully integrated into the AFM software.
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Left image: Map of Young's modulus (blue area is on glass.
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Right image: Approach curves (force in nN versus tip-sample distance in µm) for the locations indicted with a star on the left: on glass (blue), harder cell areas (orange) and softer cell areas (black).
Image courtesy of Nanosurf AG.
Video courtesy of Nanosurf AG.
Cell adhesion measurements
Cell adhesion measurement at Harvard Center for Nanoscale Systems with a Nanosurf AFM.
Study of tumor progression and metastasis with cell-cell adhesion forces
Study with a Nanosurf Flex-FPM by Dr. Noa Cohen, group of Prof. Tanya Konry, Northeastern University in Boston, on cell-cell adhesion forces to gain more insights into tumor progression and metastasis (Cohen et al., 2017):
Data/image courtesy of Tanya Konry group, Northeastern University, Boston, USA.
Optical images showing:
A) a single cell to be picked up by a FluidFM probe
B) the cell aspired to the cantilever and
C) the FluidFM probe with aspired cell during a cell-cell adhesion measurement.
Data/image courtesy of Tanya Konry group, Northeastern University, Boston, USA.
A) Typical force curves between a MCF7 cell aspired to the cantilever and non-cancerous, fibroblast (HS5) on the substrate at different contact times.
B) Development of the force with contact time between the cells.
Nanoprinting
Create grids & patterns
Deposit (bio)molecules and particles at defined locations with micrometer accuracy and with femtoliter volumes. A wide range of inks can be deposited in both air and liquid environment - from water to honey, solvents, acids, bases and more. For nanoscale and biomedicine research, bio-sensors and biomaterials.
Image courtesy of Nanosurf AG.
Automatically varying back pressure and contact time in a grid-like pattern (3 dots per condition), spot sizes can be quickly optimized.
Nanosurf logo written in air with a solution containing approximately 50% glycerol; back pressure 200 mbar.
Image courtesy of Nanosurf AG.
Applications using injection
Video courtesy of Nanosurf AG.
Injecting into a single cell
Typical injected volumes range from a few dozen to 200 fL, a small fraction of the overall cell volume of 4 to 5 pL. If needed the injected volume can be quantified with fL precision for each injected cell with a fluorescence intensity based approach.
The video shows a FluidFM injection of Lucifer Yellow, a fluorescent tracer, into CHO cells with CoreAFM DIMO (courtesy of Nanosurf AG) . It is common that any payload e.g. CRISPR is co-injected with a fluorescent tracer to have a live feedback on both the injection success and the injected volume.